Ballot Paper Without the names of the ward, unidentified candidates is a dangerous proxy of the absolute proportional system.

The Chairman,

The Commission of Elections

 Ballot Paper Without the names of the ward, unidentified candidates is a dangerous proxy of the absolute proportional system.

The Election Commission has just concluded the process of electing the members of the local government bodies that are going to administer its voters; the hurried in a rather slip shot way and hence the voters have no clue whatsoever what ward or constituency they belong to or the candidate they voted for, and more pathetically the electors does not know who they have elected for their unknown ward or electorate!

Such a pathetically hilarious situation has emancipated due to various reasons, and one of the reason is political double way pressure first to delay and then to expedite the election rather unnecessarily. The second most important though not last, the reason is the shift of electoral process from absolute proportional system to mixed electoral system, that mixes both the process that has been practiced in Sri Lanka,  one that was just replaced and the other one was just 37 years ago.

I with strong responsibility condemn the Election Commission (EC) for not referring to the ballot paper samples of First Past the Post System put out by Department of Elections 37 years ago that would have enabled the voters to identify their ward or electorate along with its candidate; I also strongly condemn the EC for failing to apply the procedure that was available in the just replaced absolute proportional system – swift enabling the voter the  all-important candidate identity, though one of the reasons this system to be replaced was lack of proper identification of candidates in the ballot paper which had numbers properly displayed by each party; the reason for removing the preferential voting criteria was that it  inducted rivalry and pitched violence within the same party ranks, that does not mean any way that voter discretion  for individual candidates of opposing parties had to be completely blocked.

It is a basic right of a voter to identify the candidate to whom she or he is going to cast her/his vote and it is the sole responsibility of the Election Commission for enabling or facilitate the identification of the candidate to the voter on a Ballot Paper.

Further, it is a citizen’s basic right to decide upon whether to contest a single ward or electorate or as a group to group of wards – Individuals discretion to serve lonely to a ward or electorate cannot be hindered by election rules. Likewise, a party symbol alone cannot be allowed to obscure the individual popularity in the Ballot Paper and vice versa.  

It is the sole responsibility of the Election Commission to ensure the voters cast the votes to an appropriate person(s) by providing enough identity of candidates otherwise there is no any purpose in the mixed electoral process.

Mere one Gazette notification and exhibiting photos of candidates at the Polling Booth will not reach entire voters and hence the beneficiaries of representatives in thousands.   

Ballot Paper Without the names of the ward, unidentified candidates is a dangerous proxy of the absolute proportional system.

Ballot Paper Without the names of the ward, unidentified candidates is a dangerous proxy of the absolute proportional system.