If Representation For Dispersed Minorities Is The Sticking Point In 20A …..
By Sujata Gamage –May 28, 2015
Dr. Sujata Gamage
According to the Daily News report on Cabinet meeting of May 27th (ePaper: | Online edition of Daily News – Sri Lanka), the cabinet is deadlocked on 20A. According to other sources, The Cabinet sub-committee appointed for the purpose had an agreement on the proposed adaptation of the New Zealand method with 165 FPP seats and 255 total seats, but, at the larger cabinet meeting differences re-emerged. The meeting had adjourned giving the President and Prime Minister the responsibility to address the diffferences. Apparently, the President is meeting the UPFA group today to get their opinion. What will be the response of the UNP and the allies is the big question.
Representation for minorities, geographically dispersed minorities in particular, is essentially the issue. In my opinion, dispersed minority concerns are real, but, solutions exist. The proposed mixed member proportional (MMP) system is an adaptation of New Zealand method to Sri Lanka with ideas from Dinesh Gunawardena committee report other Sri Lanka unique adaptations thrown in. For short we shall call this method a multi member proportional Sri Lanka or MMP-LK. Here, the seats in the parliament are divided among parties using proportional representation but the performance of individual candidates in 165polling divisions is used as a replacement for district-wise performance in preferential vote or manapes. In essence if you don’t get nomination for 165 polling divisions your only chance of getting to parliament is through the other 90 seats, of which about 20-30 may go to best runners-up.
Tamils and Muslims in the North and the East are minorities at the national level but in their regions they have the strength in numbers to send their representative to the parliament through first-past-the-post (or FPP) component of a mixed member system. Indian-origin Tamils also have the power in the Nuwara-Eliya district but not anywhere else.Read More
