HUNG COUNCILS, THE RESULT OF MIXED ELECTORAL SYSTEM

Apart from the popularity issue, the NPP faced the flaws of the mixed electoral system as well. Despite the party being able to win the largest number of seats in 266 local councils including the Colombo Municipal Council, it had won absolute majority only in 133 councils. As the party had accused all other parties of corruption, the morality does not permit it to form coalitions with any of those parties. Hence, Tilvin Silva says that they would form coalitions only with independent groups. Yet, would there be independent groups that would coalesce with the NPP without political bribery?

The analysis of the results of the local government elections held on May 6 by political parties are very interesting since no party has been defeated, every party has something to brag about. Tilvin Silva, the General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the core party of the National People’s Power (NPP), citing the number of councils in which the NPP has won the highest number of seats, has stated that his partyhas made history. He seems to have not seen the drastic erosion of his party’s vote bank at this election

However, the General Secretary of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya Ranjith Madduma Bandara MP had pointed out that his party’s vote percentage has risen to 22 from 17 since the Parliamentary election held in November, last year. Despite the fact that the SJB has failed to obtain at least half the number of votes the NPP has bagged at the May 6 elections, he has also pointed out that the NPP’s vote percentage has fallen from 62 percent to 43 percent during the same period.

The elation expressed by Namal Rajapaksa, the National Organiser of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) over his party having increased its vote bank from 350,000 to 950,000 within six months is justifiable, despite the fact that the Rajapaksas who won almost two thirds of seats in Parliament twice are now reduced to the current level.

The Sarvajana Balaya led by Dilith Jayaweera, once a close friend of the Rajapaksas, has lost sight of the SLPP gains. A prominent leader of the party, Professor Channa Jayasumana told media that no party can equal the success of his party which has doubled its vote bank within six months. So, every party has won.

The United National Party (UNP) led by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe has distanced itself from this bragging contest, apparently for obvious reasons.

However, the most conspicuous fact in this election is the drastic drop of popularity of the NPP which in a similar vein has outsmarted all its opponents. The party which won over two thirds of seats in Parliament getting over 6.8 million or 61 percent of valid votes in November managed only to obtain 4.5 votes which is 43 in percentage.

The factors that affect the voters in a parliamentary election are a far cry from those which work at a local government election; hence, comparison of the achievements of a party at these two elections is not appropriate. Yet, the achievements of the NPP at last Tuesday’s local government elections are undoubtedly a serious issue. Although the seat allocation of the local government elections is carried out under the mixed electoral system, voting takes place under the FirstPast-the-Post system. People vote for candidates who are in most cases well known to them and living in the same ward with them. Yet, people might prefer the candidates of other parties over the candidates of the NPP as they are somewhat affluent and thereby relatively influential than the latter. This might have been one of the reasons for the NPP’s vote slump.

The landslide victory of the NPP at the Parliamentary election in November was a manifestation of the intense expectations of the people who bore the brunt of the economic crisis and the bankruptcy of the country in 2022. The intensity of those expectations was such that people wanted the NPP government to fulfil them immediately after the party came to power. However, things did not move fast as they expected, for reasons justifiable and otherwise.

Main among them was the state machinery which is traditionally lethargic in nature and had been filled with officials most of whom had been hand in glove with the corrupt politicians of the past. This might have been another reason for the people’s frustration at the government performance.

Secondly, the country is under a programme sponsored and controlled by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which has tied the hands of the government. On the other hand, If the government tried to release its hands from the IMF grip, the country would again be in economic turmoil. The government is sandwiched between IMF conditions and people’s expectations. When the government failed to sufficiently deliver, people slowly began to turn away.

The NPP, for obvious political reasons, did not explain this to the people prior to their assumption of office. Now the citizenry is not in a position to grasp the situation and also not concerned about the dilemma of the government. Unlike the other political parties that are interested in just running the existing system, the NPP seems to attempt to change the system, as they promised. This needs innovative people specially in political and economic fields. The capacity of the NPP in this regard is not clear.

Apart from the popularity issue, the NPP faced the flaws of the mixed electoral systemas well. Despite the party being able to win the largest number of seats in 266 local councils including the Colombo Municipal Council, it had won absolute majority only in 133 councils. As the party had accused all other parties of corruption, the morality does not permit it to form coalitions with any of those parties. Hence, Tilvin Silva says that they would form coalitions only with independent groups. Yet, would there be independent groups that would coalesce with the NPP without political bribery?

SLPP which won 231 out of 340 local councils in 2018 when the mixed electoral system was implemented in Sri Lanka for the first time also faced a similar situation. They also faced a problem in capturing power in certain councils, despite them having won largest number of seats in them. Hence, SLPP leader Mahinda Rajapaksa suggested amending the LG election law.

The issue stems from the Proportional Representation (PR) in the mixed electoral system. The UNP government of President J.R. Jayewardene introduced bonus seats and a cut-off point for political parties to be eligible for seats, in order to avert collective strength of other parties from outnumbering the party that gets the highest number of seats. However, those safeguards have been removed from the current mixed system. Also, the current mixed electoral system for LG elections have doubled the number of members in councils, exerting heavy pressure on the public coffers.

NPP has to address these systemic defects while finding solutions to the erosion of its vote bank.