SLFP insists future poll should be held under new electoral system
Thursday, 12 March 2015 01:16
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The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday said that the upcoming election should be held under a new electoral system after trimming certain powers of the executive presidency and implementing electoral reforms.
Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala de Silva addressing a press conference yesterday in Colombo said that they are against the United National Party (UNP) trying to bring in the constitutional amendments as an urgent bill.
“The people should have a chance to have a debate about this issue and that requires time. Therefore, we are against the UNP trying to bring in the constitutional amendments as an urgent bill in parliament because we believe that it will trample people’s democracy. We are also of the opinion that both these constitutional amendments should be implemented together. Not piece by piece, but at the same time. If not we will not vote for it and they cannot do anything without our votes,” Silva said.
Commenting further, he added that they held discussions with the Elections Commissioner on the first-past-the-post system and the segregation of electorates and nothing had been decided yet though the Elections Commissioner has stated that he would think on the matter and submit a report on it in the future.
“The Elections Commissioner said that electorates can be segregated within a time period of three months. Therefore, if this committee to segregate electorates is appointed, then we can have the next election under a new electoral system. We plan to hold discussions about this with our Parliamentarians in the future,” Silva added.
Expressing the party’s views regarding the National Government, he said that the SLFP had arrived at a decision to support a national government but that the SLFP would be doing this under its own conditions and not under UNP conditions.
“President Sirisena will decide when Parliament should be dissolved. All we are saying is that elections should be held under a new electoral system and we are not supporting Premier Ranil’s Government but President Sirisena’s Government,” Silva said. Meanwhile, the SLFP also said that they plan to contest for the upcoming election with the support of the minority parties of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and that many UNP members would join their party to contest for the upcoming election while refuting the claims that any of the SLFP members would be joining the UNP to contest for the general election.
