EC’s inputs sought on electoral reforms

The All-Party Committee on Electoral Reforms sought the views of Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya yesterday on electoral reforms and requested him to suggest a formula that could be considered by the political parties, informed sources said yesterday. Political party representatives including Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala de Silva met Mr. Deshapriya at the parliamentary complex yesterday and during the discussions there was a proposal to increase the present number of 225 MPs about which there were views expressed for and against.

The representatives proposed various criteria for the election of the 225 MPs if that was going to be the number of parliamentarians. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), with the backing of a few other parties, proposed to elect 110 members under the First-Pastthe-Post (FPP) system and the Proportional Representation (PR) system with the remaining five members nominated through the National List. Another suggestion was to elect 130 on the FPP system, 66 on the PR system and the remaining 29 through the National List.

A third proposal was to elect 130 members on the FPP system, 70 on the PR system and 15 through the National List.

Some of the representatives also proposed to increase the current number of seats by 25 with the members selected as follows: 150 on the FPP system, 75 on the PR system and 25 through the National List.

Another proposal was to allocate 160 seats on the FPP system, 80 on the PR system and 10 through the National List.

The next meeting with the Election Commissioner was fixed for Tuesday.