New President urged for electoral reforms

By Huzefa Aliasger   

Commissioner of General Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake said that a proposal to change certain Electoral Laws have been made to president Anura Kumara Dissanayake, of which the main focus being security deposits of candidates and parties, which stand right now at Rs. 50,000 for a political party and Rs.75,000 for independent candidates.   

• The purpose of the deposit is to reduce the prevalence of ‘fringe’ candidates or parties with no realistic chance of winning a seat

The purpose of the deposit is to reduce the prevalence of ‘fringe’ candidates or parties with no realistic chance of winning a seat.   

If the candidate does not achieve the refund threshold, the deposit is forfeited. The Election Commission set a threshold of 12.5 percent of votes required as a threshold of the security deposits, of which only 3 candidates out of 38 achieved in the recently concluded presidential election, according to the Election Commission   

After repeated appeals by the Election Commission to the government, In April 2024, the Cabinet approved a proposal by former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe to increase the deposit, however “there was too little time to implement the increased deposits for the September presidential election.   

“The change of the deposits to 2.6 million for a political party and 3.1 million for an independent candidate has been proposed to the president already” Ratnayake said.