Double Vote Element Would Strengthen President’s Vision On Electoral Reform: Assembly Of Minor Parties

June 15, 2015

Assembly of minor parties (AMP) which met yesterday resolved to push for double vote system and claimed that it would strengthen the mandate received by president Maithripala Sirisena at the January 8th elections. Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) leader Mano Ganesan dismissed the school of thought that minority parties are sabotaging the 20A as absurd and misleading. He said they are for the electoral reform and extend fullest support to president Maithripala Sirisena’s reform concept that seeks MPs for every polling division and abolishes preferential vote.

Mano Ganesan

Issuing a statement today the TPA said;”We demand to qualify above concept with the proposal to grant double votes to every voter. The double vote will enable the voters to use one vote to elect his or her candidate of choice in the polling division and use the other vote to select his or her party of choice. The vote to candidate will immediately be calculated to choose the MP of the polling division while the vote to party will be calculated to nationally. The voters are at peace selecting the right and capable person of their choice at their electorate while expressing their loyalty to their party through the party vote. This is an exercise of adding more meaning to the electoral process. Besides, the double vote element added to president Sirisena’s electoral reform package will ensure the existence of the minor parties. The minor parties are very necessary elements in a functioning democracy like Sri Lanka.

“As the double vote is value addition to electoral reforms proposed by the president, we demand the inclusion of this element in already proposed 20A. We have decided to refrain from supporting the 20A in the current format that is minus double vote element.Read More