SC dismisses Harin’s case on reallocation of seats in Uva
Friday, 25 July 2014 00:30
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The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a petition filed by UNP Parliamentarian Harin Fernando challenging the Election Commissioner’s reallocation of seats between districts in the Uva Province ahead of provincial polls in the region.
Fernando and a voter from Badulla petitioned the Supreme Court claiming that the equality and the sovereignty of the people had been violated under the formula used by Polls Chief Mahinda Deshapriya to reassign seats for the Uva Provincial Council in the Badulla and Monaragala Districts.
The petitions were taken up before a bench headed by Chief Justice Mohan Peiris and Justices K Sripavan and Priyantha Jayawardane.
Counsels Ronald Perera PC and Attorney-at-Law Suren Fernando who represented MP Fernando and a Badulla voter respectively, argued that 45,000 voters were required in the Badulla District to send a single representative to the PC, whereas only 32,000 votes were required to send a representative from Monaragala.
The lawyers argued that by that formula, three voters in Badulla could do what two voters in Monaragala could do, creating a discrimination based on voting strength in the two districts.
The lawyers said that while the Polls Chief had reassigned seats to the two districts on the basis of land area, franchise attaches to the people and should be given priority.
Under the new formula, 880,000 voters in the Badulla District will send 18 representatives to the Uva PC while 440,000 voters in the Monaragala District would send 14 representatives to the Council.
However, the Supreme Court bench did not believe the argument was valid, and noted that the Elections Commissioner had reallocated seats based on the two provisions for population and land in the law. The Court refused leave to proceed on the two petitions and dismissed the case.
Seats for each district are allocated on the basis that there would be one elected representative for every 45,000 people and one per 1,000 square kilometre area. The Opposition has argued that land area is taken into account only if there are seats remaining after the allocation is made based on population. (DB)
