Spotlight on voter rights as Elections Commission, monitors set to mark Voters' Day
The Election Commission will on June 1 launch an array of exhibitions, rallies, workshops and public meetings to raise awareness on the importance of voter registration as part of its National Voters’ Day programmes.
Deputy Elections Commissioner M.M. Mohamed told the Sunday Times these programmes, to be held throughout June, were aimed at educating the people on the value of their franchise.
“A real democracy is dependent on accurate voter registration, but most people do not understand the importance of this,” Mr. Mohamed said.
Voter registration for 2018 will begin on June 1 and Grama Niladharis have already set out to distribute registration forms, the deputy commissioner said. “The forms will be collected after June 1.”
Mr. Mohamed said firsttime voters and youth would be the main target of their awareness campaigns.
The people should understand that voting was their civic responsibility. The election officials could do only so much, but the decision had to be taken by the people themselves, he said.
“The process is easy even for those who are abroad. A family member in Sri Lanka can enter their names with the only additional informa- tion needed to be furnished being the year in which they last registered,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they had left the country five or ten years ago and not returned since.”
Meanwhile independent election monitors, the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) and the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), will also launch Voters' Day programmes to educate the people on the significance of voter registration.
PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchie said there are many reasons why voters are reluctant to register, besides bureaucratic shortcomings.
“There is voter disillusionment and the blame should be laid on politicians. Voters feel a sense of betrayal in that no matter who they vote for they see no change while the promises remain unfulfilled. This obviously contributes to voter disillusionment. They even become reluctant to register,” Mr. Hettiarachchie said.
He said some cast a protest vote against the government without a proper understanding of the election in question.
“This is due to a lack of awareness,” he said. “We saw this in the 2015 presidential election and most notably in the recent local council elections. It should be understood that local council elections are held to elect representatives for local bodies to serve their respective local areas. Therefore, expecting a possible change at national level politics through local council elections makes no sense.”
Those who expect such change end up disillusioned with the system and may even abstain from registering.
Mr. Hettiarachchie said he hoped the awareness programmes would help educate the people of the importance of registering and voting appropriately in keeping with the election in question.
CaFFe Director Keerthi Tennakoon said his organisation would reach out to people living in far away villages because most of them were unaware of their right to franchise and voter registration deadlines.
Mr. Tennakoon also said there were issues with the current registration procedure, and his organisation was in favour of a continuous registration process and a longer period of validation. “The current one year validation period is not efficient, nor is the once a year registration,” he said.
“We are lobbying to change this and make the process more efficiently accessible to the people. But until parliament takes it up and amends the existing Election Act, even the Election Commission can’t do anything about it.”