Political parties: Are they too many?

On nomination day of the January Presidential Election Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake made a pertinent remark. Confronted with the largest number of Presidential candidates ever in the country’s short Presidential elections history he called on those ‘Independent’ candidates to withdraw from the race rather than include themselves in the list merely to campaign for one or other of the main candidates.

He indicated that this was a waste of time entailing additional work for the Commission not to mention a waste of financial resources. What he did not say in so many words was that this represented a farce and a mockery of the election system. This is because it was well known these residual candidates had hitched their wagon to one of the main candidates and had appeared as their proxies to garner the free air time given to candidates on National Television and subsequently ride piggyback on the successful candidate to high office.

This is also true with regard to the multitude of small political parties that are represented in Parliament today. They are there as mere adjuncts to the major political parties expecting to be appointed on the national List though hardly commanding a vote base. Some of these parties are aptly called ‘three wheeler’ parties based on their true support but manage to secure Parliamentary slots disproportional to their actual clout.

Now comes the news that the Elections Commission has received over 80 applications for registration of new political parties and that their cases will be taken up in September after the return of the Elections Commissioner from a trip abroad. One shudders to think of the consequences of the electorate being saddled with more and more political parties considering that we already have 66 registered political parties in the country. This no doubt would lead to chaos at a time when ballot papers get longer and longer with every successive election.

Of course the Commissioner will use his discretion in granting approval for a new party. But with the rejected parties reserving the option to go seek legal remedies invoking fundamental rights jurisdiction our courts are certainly going to be kept busy in the coming months. What is more, if these parities succeed in their cases Sri Lanka will one again enter the record books this time as the country with the largest number of political parties.

One of the criteria on which the Commissioner will decide on registering a new political party would be its voter-strength. A rejected party in turn would argue that the political party has to be floated first for it to gain voter acceptance. This was the basis on which many a political party came into being in the recent past. In addition a majority of these small parties that gained entry are splinter groups of major parties and thus have little or no following. They merely exist to hitch their wagon to the major players at election time enabling their leaders to enter Parliament via the national list and also become Ministers.

This makes a mockery of representative democracy where the people’s will is distorted. True, alliance politics has come to stay in Sri Lanka. However here in Sri Lanka small parties in alliances are mere spectators unlike in India where entities such as the Communist Party wield much influence in coalition governments. Besides here political parties are a dime a dozen making it one whole circus.

Therefore the Elections Chief should exercise great care in accommodating new political parties and if necessary suggest appropriate legislation that would preclude accepting all comers, before he sits to decide on new political parties come September. He should also take steps to reconsider the status of those minuscule parties that are already cluttering up the electoral landscape making the electoral exercise unwieldy and impractical. Minimum criteria should be laid down for acceptance of a new political party for registration.

Such a decision would also prevent these small parties that continue to make hay taking advantage of the PR electoral system to further their interests and agendas without commanding any voter base.

For a small country, Sri Lanka has already too many political parties for its own health and any addition of new players can only make it more confusing. Therefore it is time the fat is trimmed to make our election system more tolerable and less confusing. The Commissioner should desist from registering political parties who come forward merely to make up the numbers and then use it as a springboard to go places including the amassing of funds.

It is hoped that with new election reforms in the pipeline this aspect too would receive the highest attention.