Delimitation: to conduct or not to conduct election?

The Opposition political parties are again accusing that the government was going to postpone the elections, especially the local government elections. This is the third time these parties have been making this allegation within a period of a month. 

It was when President Ranil Wickremesinghe on October 9 made several suggestions to the country’s electoral system during a meeting with a group of professionals that they first made this allegation. And then they repeated it when Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe requested Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on October 26 to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to recommend reforms in all three tiers of elections in the country, Parliamentary, Provincial Councils and Local Government. 
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has appointed a five-member Delimitation Committee under the Local Authorities Election Act of 2012 which would be chaired by Mahinda Deshapriya, the former Chairman of the National Election Commission and current Chairman of the Delimitation Commission. 

Other members of the committee are Jayalath R. V. Dissanayake, W. M. M. R. Adhikari, K. Thavalingam and I. A. Hameed. The Committee has been given four months from November 1 to February 28 next year to hand over their report, re-demarcating wards of Municipal Councils, Urban Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas. Now the Opposition parties are making the same allegation. 

The President seems to be serious about his plans in respect of elections. During his discussion with professionals on October 9, he suggested appointing a PSC on electoral reforms

The President seems to be serious about his plans in respect of elections. During his discussion with professionals on October 9, he suggested appointing a PSC on electoral reforms. He said even a referendum will be held unless the PSC fails to do the job by July next year. Accordingly, Justice Minister has requested the Speaker now to appoint a PSC. The delimitation committee has been appointed to reduce the number of local government members across the country from around 8,000 to 4,000, as suggested by the President during his discussion with the professionals. 

Some Opposition parties, including the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), have taken Mr. Mahinda Deshapriya to task, for taking over the task of re-demarcation of wards of local councils. They say Deshapriya has become a pawn in the hands of the government to postpone local government elections which can be announced any time after September 20. 
Mr. Deshapriya was appointed the Chairman of the Delimitation Commission in December 2020. The new committee is different from the commission he has been chairing since. All independent commissions including the Delimitation Commission have to be reconstituted under the 21st Amendment to the Constitution that became effective on October 31 after being passed in Parliament on October 21. However, the existing commissions will function until new commissions are appointed. 

Some Opposition parties, including the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), have taken Mr. Mahinda Deshapriya to task, for taking over the task of re-demarcation of wards of local councils

The mixed electoral system was introduced for LG elections in 2012 and the delimitation process for the LG bodies was completed in 2017. Now the government is going to reduce the number of LG bodies which necessitates the reduction of wards in areas under each local government body. This in turn would necessitate another delimitation process. Accordingly, Prime Minister Gunawardena, in his capacity as the minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government has appointed the new committee.
Deshapriya has dismissed the allegations and arguments that the appointment of his committee would lead to postponement of LG elections. In an interview with a Sinhala newspaper, he argued that the Election Commission has the authority to conduct the LG elections using either the existing demarcation of wards or the new demarcations which has to be completed by February 28 next year. Citing an example, he said that there is no bar to travel on a bridge just because another new bridge is being constructed. 

He also had explained the circumstances that led to his appointment as the Chairman of the new committee. When the Local Government minister was instructed to appoint a delimitation committee in line with the Cabinet approval of the President’s suggestion to reduce the number of members of local government bodies on October 17, the Delimitation Commission made a request to include its members as well in the new committee, as happened in the past. Accordingly, Deshapriya as the Delimitation Commission Chairman was appointed the Chairman of the new delimitation Committee as well. And he says that his appointment, therefore, has nothing to do with the elections being held in time or postponed. He also expressed confidence that the committee would be able to fulfil its task within the given time frame (before February 28).

The mixed electoral system was introduced for LG elections in 2012 and the delimitation process for the LG bodies was completed in 2017. Now the government is going to reduce the number of LG bodies which necessitates the reduction of wards in areas under each local government body

In fact, there does not seem to be any attempt to postpone elections on the part of the Election Commission, but politicians can make them difficult to be held. Even if the Deshapriya committee hands over its report to the minister before February 28, it will have to be ratified by the Parliament. Since the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) seems to be reluctant to face any election at this juncture in view of the current economic crisis and the resultant hardships faced by the voters, they can scuttle the ratification of it. 
If Parliament did not approve the report, then it would have to be referred to a review committee which is required to hand over its report to the President in two months. Since Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena also represents the SLPP, the possibility of something untoward happening is not ruled out.

This is not a pessimistic imagination, but an inference based on past experience. We have recalled in a recent article how the elections for the provincial council were made impossible by the Yahapalana Government in 2017. The previous government led by the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe presented two amendment Bills in September 2017, one to the Constitution and the other to the Provincial Councils Elections Act. The Supreme Court ruled that some of the Articles of the Bill for the Constitutional Amendment (20th Amendment Bill) must be approved by the people at a referendum as they were inconsistent with the Constitution and some of them would delay the provincial council elections.   

Today, some of the same leaders are in power. Also, there are sufficient grounds to believe that the government fears elections, whatsoever, in light of the hardships faced by the people due to the current economic meltdown

Then, while the other Bill was debated in Parliament the government introduced an amendment to it to provide for the introduction of a mixed electoral system for provincial councils as well, which inevitably necessitated the deferral of the PC elections. The Bill with that amendment was passed in September 2017 and a delimitation report was presented accordingly in August 2018 by a committee headed by K. Thavalingam, the former Surveyor General. However, the Parliament refused to ratify it. Then a review committee headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed as per the law, but it too failed to hand over its report to the President in two months as required by the law.  Thus, five years have passed without PC elections being held since the mixed electoral system was introduced. 

Today, some of the same leaders are in power. Also, there are sufficient grounds to believe that the government fears elections, whatsoever, in light of the hardships faced by the people due to the current economic meltdown.  And the downsizing of local government bodies is very essential in light of the same economic crisis. Therefore, the allegations of the Opposition parties cannot be rejected as baseless. Yet, if the Deshapriya Committee hands over its report in time, it would be very difficult for the Election Commission to postpone the LG elections.