Gazette notification on Delimitation: AG files motion seeking early call-up

By S.S. Selvanayagam

The Attorney General yesterday filed a motion in the Court of Appeal seeking to call up on 30 November the writ petition challenging the gazette notification dated 17 February on the delimitation amending the boundaries, number of members and constituent parts of wards in respect of the local authorities.

He has asked the Court to vacate the Interim Order and dismiss the petition as the petitioners have no locus standi (the right or ability to bring a legal action to a court of law, or to appear in a court) and the necessary parties, namely the Election Commissioner, etc. were not made a party, it was out of its jurisdiction and the Elections Commissioner has already called for 93 local government bodies out of a total of 133 seats.

Only the remaining 40 seats are in dispute and if an election is not held in these local government bodies, the franchise of the people would have been denied, he pointed out. He is also asking the Court to award costs.

The Court of Appeal on 22 November issued an Interim Order staying the operation of the said Gazette notification and also issued notices on the Minister and the Ministry Secretary returnable for 4 December.

The bench comprised Justices L.T.B. Dehideniya (CA President), Kumudini Wickramasinghe and A.L.S. Gooneratne.

Pursuant to certain purported recommendations of the five-member National Delimitation Committee headed by its Chairman Ashoka Peiris, the Minister has by a gazette notification dated 17 February 2017 effected the amendments by amending the boundaries, number of members and the constituent parts of wards in respect of the local authorities.

The Attorney General on 16 November raised a preliminary objection on the maintainability of the writ petition seeking to quash the decision of the Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils Faiszer Musthapha.

When the writ petition challenging the gazette notification of Minister Musthapha was taken up on 16 November, the UNP, Pothujana Peramuna, JVP, PAFFREL, CaFFE and Eksath Jathika Nidhahas Peramuna indicated their intention to intervene to oppose the original petition.

They had been directed to file their papers on 20 November to consider whether to allow their intervention. The Court will consider their intervention on 4 December as well.

Deputy Solicitor General Arjuna Obeysekera appeared for the respondents. The Minister and the Ministry Secretary had raised the objection on the grounds of limited time that the petition had been filed after nine months and the petitioners had no locus standi, there were no necessary parties in the petition namely the Election Commission, etc.

Petitioners W.D.G. Wijeratne (Kandy District), T. Sirisena Fernando (Colombo District), R.K.M. Karuatilake Kumara (Kurunegala District), D.K. Ariyaratne( Badulla District), J.K. Rajapaksha Senadheera (Ratnapura District) and P.H. Yohan Dhanushka (Matara District) cited the Minister and the Ministry Secretary as respondents.

The petitioners state the legislature has sought to amend the manner in which members are elected to local authorities and introduce a new electoral system which is a mixed system comprising elements of a single majority (i.e. first-past-the-post) and proportional systems.

They state the legislature has added another aspect to the electoral process pertaining to the election of members to local authorities whereby certain guarantees are imposed on the election of female representatives.

The said status required a comprehensive national delimitation process which was necessary for the demarcation of all local authorities into distinct wards and to determine the number of members that could be elected.

The President through a gazette notification dated 21 August 2015 has published the number of wards, the boundaries, names, number and letter in English assigned to each ward on the recommendations of the National Delimitation Committee in respect of the local authorities throughout the island, they state.

The Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils is vested with the power to cause an alteration to be made to the boundaries of the wards as published in the terms of the Local Authorities Act, they state.

Such alterations are required to be made on the recommendations of a committee consisting of five persons appointed by the Minister, they state. Consequent to the publication of the gazette notification dated 21 August 2017, the Minister had apparently appointed a committee to effect the alterations to the boundaries of the ward, they lament.

Pursuant to certain purported recommendation of the committee, the Minister has by gazette notification dated 17 February 2017 effected purported amendments, they state.

They bemoan several wards in the Colombo and Kandy Municipal Councils as well as Kotapola, Panduwasnuwara, Haliela and Empilipitiya Pradeshiya Sabhas which were designated as multimember wards have been re-designated as wards which only elect one member and other several wards which elected only one member have been re-designated multimember wards.

They say the Minister had made alterations to the number of members elected from the ward in many local authorities throughout the island. They contend the Minister is not empowered to cause any alteration to the number of members and the boundaries of wards. They allege the minister has acted ultra vires (beyond his powers) and without jurisdiction.

They seek the Court to quash the decision of the Minister contained in the Gazette notification dated 17 February 2017 and suspend the operation of the said gazette notification until the final determination. N.M. Shaheed appeared for the petitioners.

Party leaders meeting decides for three-member committee to negotiate with petitioners 

By Skandha Gunasekara

In a bid to resolve the issue concerning the Local Government Elections, party leaders yesterday had decided to appoint a three-member committee to negotiate with the six petitioners who had filed a case in the Court of Appeal against the Gazette notification pertaining to the delimitation for the Local Government polls.

According to informed sources, the committee is to comprise Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran.

Apart from party leaders, Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya, Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya and Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faiszer Musthapha also attended the meeting, which was presided over by Speaker Jayasuriya at his office.

Premier Wickremesinghe had pointed out that there was an urgent need to negotiate with the six petitioners to withdraw their case as the petition gave leeway for the Court of Appeal to issue a stay order to prevent the Local Government polls from being conducted, sources said. 

Accordingly, after a prolonged discussion, it was decided by the party leaders that a committee would be appointed to deliberate with the petitioners to have them withdraw the case. 

The matter of submitting a motion to court on 30 November to accelerate court proceedings instead of waiting till its next scheduled hearing on 4 December was also addressed at the party leaders meeting yesterday, with the Chairman of the Elections Commission pledging to begin the process of conducting Local Government polls as soon as all legal issues were solved.