Don’t introduce new mixed electoral system to PC, Parliamentary polls

The All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) has asked the government not to introduce the new mixed electoral system to the Provincial Council and Parliamentary elections.

Today we have a situation where many councils cannot be established because of the new system, said Leader of the ACMC, Rishard Bathuideen addressing a media briefing yesterday at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

He added that the new system was introduced amidst intense objections put forward by his and other smaller parties.

“This was introduced to benefit the two main parties and destroy the smaller parties so that they won’t have to depend on them”, said Bathuideen.

“The inability to form councils in many areas had risen due to certain councils not being able to meet the 25 percent quota on women, “They wanted a quota for women and now we can’t form a council”, observed an irate minister.

An analysis of the recent election results, however, revealed that the ACMC has in fact managed to significantly increase the number of seats won in the local government bodies they contested under the new system.

The party had increased their number of seats from 42 in 2011 to 166 members this year. Further, the party which contested under the United National Front in many of the areas, with Hassan Ali’s United Peace Front in Ampara and independently in Trincomalee, had also expanded their base to new areas such as Kandy, Kurunegala and Negombo.

Bathuideen however insisted that their opposition to the new system was not based on their party’s achievements but for the overall betterment of the country,

“It is true that we have done much better under the new system but electoral systems are supposed to be designed to help the country. The decisions taken by our leaders to support either themselves or their respective party has destroyed the country for the last 40 years,” he explained.

When asked about his views on the current political crisis, Bathuideen said they would support a stable unity government which would stick by the January 8 2015 mandate.