SHOULD RECTIFY LG ELECTORAL SYSTEM SHORTCOMINGS – PM

PARLIAMENT

Accepting that the new local government electoral system had destabilized certain local bodies, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said Parliament should decide on how to rectify these shortcomings in the system.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said this at the swearing in ceremony of newly-elected UNP members of 13 local bodies at Temple Trees last evening.

“The new local government electoral system has It is essential to decide as to whether the electoral system should be amended or whether to or to change it all together. Parliament should discuss and decide on this matter destabilized several local bodies as it deciding as to who should be appointed through the lists had become a difficult task,” the Prime Minister said. “It is essential to decide as to whether the electoral system should be amended or whether to or to change it all together. Parliament should discuss and decide on this matter,” he added. He stressed that it is essential to avoid this system going in to provincial councils. “Decisions will have to be made quickly,” he therefore said.

However, PM Wickremesinghe said there is a clear advantage in the new electoral system which was experimented for the first time at the recent local government elections, and the polls were peaceful with the absence of preferential vote system.

“There was competition between the candidates of the same party other than between the parties when polls were held under the Proportionate Representation System,” he also said.

National Organizer of UNP Bikkhu Front Ven. Abanpola Gnanaloka Thera who referred to the present political situation said there should not be a leadership change in the UNP.

“Did anyone ask former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign from the party leadership when he suffered an electoral defeat in 2015; or did any one ask President Maithripala Sirisena to resign?” he questioned.