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TPA claims govt. under local and foreign pressure agreed to hold PC polls under PR system

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The Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) yesterday claimed that the government came under local and foreign pressure to hold Provincial Council elections. Hence, it had agreed to hold the Provincial Council elections under the Proportional Representation (PR) system.

TPA Leader Mano Ganesan said that it was not possible to hold elections under the mixed system. “If the elections are to be held under the mixed system, the demarcation of electoral boundaries have to be redefined. This is a long-term process,” he said.

He noted that to prevent delaying the elections further, the government and the opposition agreed to hold the election on the PR system, but it was a temporary agreement. “Therefore, electoral reforms will continue. The next meeting of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) will be held on the 22nd of this month,” said TPA leader MP Mano Ganesan.

The TPA Leader said “If we try to change the electoral system at this point, it will only lead to greater delays. Therefore, we stood our ground that the elections must be held and as a result, the government and the opposition were able to come to an agreement at the PSC meeting,” he said.

Ganesan noted that at the PSC meeting, earlier the government members had demanded the mixed system and rejected the proportional system.

“But we opposed this position because it was intended to push aside smaller parties which chose the path of democracy with alternative policies, and to jeopardize the parliamentary and provincial representations of the minority parties representing their communities scattered throughout the country,” he said.

Parties including the SJB and JVP supported the position on proportional system.  “Tamil Progressive Alliance, Tamil National Alliance, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the All Ceylon Makkal Congress are also of the view that the proportional system should not be changed,” Ganesan noted.

He asserted that he had also conducted discussions with the leaders of the smaller parties in the government regarding the matter and they too exerted pressure on the government.

He said that the local government council members who are responsible for the day to day needs of the people, including water, electricity and roads, need to represent local wards.

“Therefore, our stance is that the Parliament and the Provincial Councils do not need the mixed system to pick members to represent local electorates. But as for the LG bodies there is a need for members to represent local wards.”

Also, Ganesan claimed that a wrong notion had been created in the country against the preferential voting system. He maintained that the preferential vote was the pinnacle of democracy. The preferential voting system rescued prospective voters from casting their votes only to the candidate nominated by the party hierarchies.

“At the time of voting for their preferred party, every voter is given the “democratic freedom” to choose the candidate of their choice by preferential vote. We need to understand this clearly.”

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