Saturday 23rd November, 2024

The ‘Gas Cylinder’ (New Democratic Front-NDF) has exploded and the ‘Telephone’ (SJB) is in a tangle over the National List (NL) appointments, and it is likely to take longer than expected for them to name their NL MPs. They are full of ambitious members vying for the NL slots.

The SJB had been able to appoint only its General Secretary Ranjith Maddumabandara as an NL MP at the time of writing. The UNP-led NDF secured two NL slots in the 14 November general election, and Ravi Karunanayake is drawing heavy flak from the UNP for having had himself appointed to Parliament arbitrarily.

The UNP is flaying NDF General Secretary Sharmila Perera for having acted high-handedly in appointing her friend, Karunanayake, to Parliament, but there is hardly anything it can do about the appointment at issue; Karunanayake was sworn in as an MP on Thursday; he and Perera have denied any wrongdoing. How the UNP is going to tackle the issue remains to be seen.

The ongoing fierce scramble for NL positions in the Opposition vindicates the JVP-led NPP’s criticism of its political rivals as a bunch of power-hungry politicians driven by self-interest; it may also explain why the SJB and the UNP/NDF have lost popular support over the years. Neither the JVP nor its alter ego, the NPP, has experienced intraparty disputes over NL appointments. The JVP has total control over its candidates, and this is something to be admired.

The NPP too has incurred public opprobrium for the shameful act of appointing defeated candidates to Parliament as NL MPs. However, to give credit where it’s due, overall, the conduct of the JVP/NPP in elections has been commendable and worthy of emulation. Never do the JVP/NPP candidates fight over preferential votes; they put their party before self. The JVP once did something that no other party would have been able to do.

One may recall that the JVP, after the election of 41 out of about its 55 candidates fielded on the SLFP-led UPFA’s ticket in the 2004 parliamentary polls, ‘donated’ two its NL slots to the SLFP to help the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga settle a dispute in the SLFP over the allocation of NL seats. Those who are fighting over NL positions in other parties will have to learn to make sacrifices for the sake of their parties and coalitions if they are to win back public sympathy and recover lost ground.

Meanwhile, the controversy over the NDF’s NL appointment offers a lesson that should not go unlearnt. It shows that under the existing election laws, the general secretaries/leaders of political parties are vested with enormous powers which they must not be allowed to exercise according to their whims and fancies.

Therefore, the preferential vote or manape must never be abolished. Otherwise, the general secretaries/leaders of political parties will be able to appoint their favourites whose names appear on nomination lists to Parliament at the expense of the deserving ones, depending on the number of seats they are entitled to on the basis of the Proportional Representation.

There has been a sustained campaign for doing away with the preferential vote mechanism, which is made out to be a wellspring of evil. True, candidates clash over preferential votes and their fights lead to transgressions including incidents of violence, but the fault is not with manape but the failure of weak political party leaders to rein in their unruly candidates and supporters. If only decent candidates are fielded and the law is strictly enforced, clashes over preferential votes can be dealt with effectively. The recently concluded general election was free from serious incidents of violence, wasn’t it?

The NPP administration gave the police a free hand to enforce the law, and the Election Commission warned that transgressors would lose their seats while taking action against the candidates who violated election laws. If the law can be enforced in this manner, future elections will also be peaceful, free and fair.