Proposed new system to elect Members of Parliament

New draft constitution - Part 3

By C. A. Chandraprema-August 5, 2018, 10:17 pm 

(Continued from last Tuesday)

Under the proposed draft constitution, there will be no executive presidency and no more presidential elections. Hence the system of electing MPs to parliament becomes all important. Furthermore, changing the system of electing MPs to Parliament so as to ensure stable governments was the main precondition for abolishing the executive presidency because the present proportional representation system in 30 years of operation and seven parliamentary elections, had allowed a winning party to obtain a clear majority in Parliament only on two occasions. It is, therefore, vital to examine whether the system, proposed in the proposed draft constitution, will enable stable governments to be formed. The system of elections that the yahapalana government introduced last year at the local government and provincial council level have come in for a great deal of criticism because of the unstable administrations they give rise to.

Both the major political parties have been talking about electoral reform and it was actually the UNP government of 2001-2004 that set up the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform under the Chairmanship of Dinesh Gunawardena. After years of deliberations, this PSC put out its interim report in 2007 outlining a system of elections which had been proposed to the PSC by Professor Sudantha Liyanage of the University of Sri Jayewardenapura.

This system was introduced at the local government level through amendments that were moved to the LG elections law in 2012 with the UNP and the UPFA both expressing agreement. The first local government election under the system thus put in place in 2012 was to be held in 2015, but the present government delayed it for three years and before they finally held the local government election, they once again changed the whole system of elections. Thereafter, they made similar changes to the provincial councils elections law as well but following the last LG elections, most of the political parties that helped pass these amendments to the LG and PC election laws are now against the system they put in place less than a year ago.

The proposed new constituency + PR

based system

Under the new electoral system proposed in the draft constitution, Parliament is to have a total of 233 MPs. Of this number, 140 will be elected from constituencies on the first past the post system. A further 76 MPs will be elected from the provinces according to the proportion of votes received by each political party. The national list which will also be elected on the proportional representation system will consist of 12 MPs.

The remaining five seats in Parliament will be allocated as bonus seats for the political party that wins the most number of seats. Once every fifteen years, the President is to establish a Delimitation Commission consisting of five persons appointed on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council, for the delimitation of electoral constituencies. The first such Delimitation Commission is to be established within three months of the coming into operation of the new constitution and its task will be to divide the nine Provinces into electoral constituencies. (Note that the electoral constituencies will not be based on districts as at present but on provinces.)

In creating the electoral constituencies, ethnic and religious differences are to be taken into account, and where the Delimitation Commission considers it necessary, they may create dual-member constituencies but these would have to be kept down to a minimum. In order to arrive at the number of MPs each province is entitled to, the total number of electors whose names appear in the registers of electors of all the Provinces shall be divided by 216. The number resulting from such division is the ‘qualifying number’. The total number of voters whose names appear in the register of electors of each Province shall be divided by the qualifying number to arrive at the number of MPs that each province is entitled to. If after division, the total number of members to be returned by all the Provinces ascertained by reference to the qualifying number turns out to be less than 216 members, the Province having the highest number of balance electors will be entitled to return one more member and so on until the total number of members to be returned comes to 216.

Political parties contesting in any electoral district (meaning province) will submit one nomination paper setting out the names of each candidate nominated in respect of each electoral constituency, and the names of additional candidates to be elected on the proportional representation quota in respect of such Province as is equivalent to the number of additional members to be elected from such Province increased by three. In order to ascertain the number of MPs each party is entitled to after a poll, the total valid votes cast in each province will be divided by the total number of members to be elected for that Province to obtain the ‘resulting number’. The total number of votes polled by each recognized political party and independent group within the Province, shall then be divided by the resulting number to arrive at the number of MPs each party is entitled to. If after this division, there are still one or more seats to be allocated, the party having the highest number of residual votes will be declared to be entitled to elect a member and so on until all vacancies are filled.

Another pure proportional representation system

The candidate nominated by the party that polls the highest number of votes in any electoral constituency shall be declared elected as the Member of Parliament elected from such constituency. In the case of dual member electoral constituencies, the two candidates who poll the highest number of votes, shall be declared elected. The number of MPs each province is entitled to return on the proportional representation quota will be determined by subtracting the total number of MPs elected from the constituencies from the total number of seats each province is entitled to.

The balance number of MPs to which each party is entitled to in each province on the proportional representation system shall be declared elected by the Elections Commission in the numerical order in which such names appear in the list furnished by the political party concerned. If any party by virtue of winning more electoral constituencies, has obtained more seats than the number of seats it would be entitled to according to the proportion of votes it got, that party shall be deemed to have been allocated such number of seats as is equal to the number of electoral constituencies it has won, and shall not be allocated any further seats out of the proportional representation quota.

After 216 MPs have been declared elected in the manner outlined above, the Election Commission will apportion the 12 national list seats in the following manner - the total valid votes polled in all Provinces by all parties shall be divided by 228 to arrive at the ‘resulting number’.

The total number of votes polled by each party within all Provinces, shall then be divided by the resulting number and the Election Commission shall declare the number of Members entitled to be elected nationwide from each such recognized political party and independent group. If any party has obtained more seats than its entitlement due to winning more constituency seats than its proportion of votes would entitle it to, the total amount of seats it has received in all Provinces shall be recorded as the amount of seats such party is entitled to.

In the eventuality mentioned above, the entitlement of the respective parties will be recalculated as follows – the total valid votes polled in all provinces by all parties shall be divided by 228 reduced by a number corresponding to the number by which any party had received seats in excess to their entitlement to arrive at the resulting number. The total number of votes polled by each party within all provinces, shall then be divided by the resulting number and the Election Commission shall declare the number of Members entitled to be elected nationwide from each such party.

The Elections Commission shall declare that each such political party or independent group is entitled to return an additional number of Members equivalent to the total number of Members calculated as stated herein, less the number of Members already declared elected from the lists of such party or group in the provinces.

After the declaration of the election of such number of members, if there are one or more seats yet to be allocated, such seats shall be allocated by reference to the residual votes to the credit of each party as well as the votes polled by any party not having any of its candidates entitled to be declared elected under this allocation. The party having the highest number of votes will be declared to be entitled to elect an MP and so on until all vacancies are filled. The Elections Commission shall declare elected Members corresponding to the number specified here, from the national list furnished by each party in the numerical order in which names appear in the list.

The party which secures the highest number of valid votes throughout the country shall be entitled to the remaining five seats as bonus seats.

The Elections Commission shall declare elected the five bonus Members from the national list furnished by such party in the numerical order in which such names appear in the said list, after accounting for any Members already declared elected from such list.

What we see from the above is that the new system of electing MPs to Parliament proposed in the draft constitution is a pure proportional representation system in all but name and not actually a hybrid ‘first past the post/proportional representation’ system as was proposed by the Dinesh Gunawardene led PSC in 2007 and introduced to the local government elections law in 2012. When the yahapalana government changed the local government and provincial council elections laws last year, what it did was to introduce a pure proportional representation system in place of the hybrid first past the post/ proportional representation system that everyone was hoping for. What would confuse most ordinary people is that the yahapalana government’s pure proportional representation systems are all dressed up to look like hybrid first past the post/proportional representation systems. Under the yahapalana elections system, there are territorial constituencies which elect representatives on the first past the post system. But thereafter, the proportion of votes the various parties obtain nationwide are calculated and the party that has won more constituencies is penalized by being deprived of seats on the PR system. In other words, the party that gets to the top of the greasy pole is pulled right back down.

Penalising the winner

What the system proposed by the Dinesh Gunawardene led PSC and introduced to the local government elections law in 2012 was a hybrid system where those who get to the top of the greasy pole by winning in the constituencies are allowed to retain their winnings while the others are ensured adequate representation through the proportional representation quota. How those who won more seats in the constituencies were allowed to retain their winnings was by subtracting the votes received by all those who win seats in the constituencies from the votes received by their respective parties when calculating the seats to be allocated on the proportional representation quota. From this it follows that the party that wins a lot of constituencies will have a lot of votes subtracted and will therefore get less seats on the PR quota. However the parties that lose in the constituencies will have all their votes counted when the PR quota seats are allocated.

In the system proposed by the Dinesh Gunawardene led PSC, pride of place was given to the constituencies and the PR quota was restricted to 30% of the total number of seats so as to ensure stable governments. However in the changes introduced to the local government elections law by the yahapalana government, the proportional representation quota has been increased to 40% and in the changes to the PC elections law to 50% - a situation that guarantees instability.

This is why so many political parties including those in the government are clamouring for the upcoming PC elections to be held according to the old PR system on the grounds that the old system despite all its faults, was more capable of providing for a stable administration. From our experience so far in relation to the changes wrought by the yahapalana government in the local government elections law, the PC elections law as well as the latest proposals made in the draft constitution, it becomes obvious that the only way out of this impasse is to go back to the system proposed by the Dinesh Gunawardene PSC.

In this regard the light at the end of the tunnel is that the UPFA and the UNP does have a history of having cooperated to introduce the Dinesh Gunawardene PSC’s proposals to the local government level in 2012. If this country is to have a system of election that guarantees stable governments, there will have to be an understanding between the two main political parties on this matter and they will have to disregard the unreasonable demands being made by the JVP and other small parties.

(To be continued)