PERFORMANCE REPORT OF THE ELECTION COMMISSION FOR THE YEAR 2018 (01.01.2018 – 31.12.2018) Contents Foreword 01 Provincial Councils Elections (Amendment) Act, No. 17 of 2017 02 Local Authorities Elections - 2018 03 Registration of Electors Act, No 44 of 1980 / Revision of Electoral Registers - 2017 05 Revision of Electoral Registers - 2018 06 Registration of Electors (Special Provisions) Act, No. 10 of 2017 13 Voters’ Day – June 01 13 Parliamentary Elections Act, No. 1 of 1981 14 Special Projects 16 Legal Amendments 17 Other Facts 17 Staff of the Election Commission 18 Training 28 Overseas Conferences and Official Tours 29 Foreign Trainings and Scholarships 30 Constructions and Assets 32 Audit and Finance Particulars 33 Conclusion 35 Statistical Tables 36 Foreword The President, on the recommendations of the Constitutional Council appointed the following members on 2015-11-17, the Election Commission was established: Mr. Mahinda Deshapriya ( Chairman and Member) Mr. N. J. Abeyesekere , Presidents Counsel ( Member ) Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole ( Member ) Vision and Mission of the Election Commission “A nation that safeguards universal franchise” is the Vision of the Election Commission. The mission statement of the Election Commission viz., “Raise critical consciousness among all stakeholders, ensuring the protection of people’s rights, and conduct free, fair and credible elections efficiently and effectively that safeguard the people’s sovereignty and universal franchise based on democratic principles”, is designed to achieve that vision. Goals and Objectives All qualified citizens exercise their franchise fearlessly, freely and confidentially in elections conducted in a free and fair manner. The citizen realizes that the exercise of franchise is an inalienable right and involves him or herself in the election process actively. Equal and fair opportunities exist for all candidates during election periods. An all-inclusive, updated voter list is in place before every election. All citizens in the marginalised sectors of society engage in the electoral processes confidently and satisfactorily. The election process is administered competently and transparently. The needs of the stakeholders for data and information related to the election process and the Election Commission are satisfactorily fulfilled in a timely manner. 1 Functions of the Election Commission Matters relating to the election process, which were hitherto attended to by the Department of Elections under the supervision of the Commissioner of Elections, were vested in the Election Commission with its establishment on 17.11.2015. In terms of Article 103(2) of the Constitution, the conduct of free and fair elections is the fundamental duty of the Election Commission. Accordingly, the Election of the President and the conduct of Parliamentary Elections, Provincial Councils Elections, Local Authorities Elections and Referenda in a free and fair manner and in connection therewith the revision of the Electoral Register on an annual basis, have to be attended to by the Commission. In addition to these statutory functions, filling of vacancies of members in Parliament, Provincial Councils and Local Authorities and recognition and registration of political parties are the other statutory functions that have been assigned to the Election Commission. 1. Provincial Councils Elections (Amendment) Act, No. 17 of 2017 The Provincial Council Elections Act, No. 17 of 2017 was being amended by introducing a mixed representation system instead of the proportional representation system, which was implemented for the election of Members to the Provincial Councils established for nine provinces, in terms of the Provincial Council Elections Act, No. 2 of 1988. Administrative districts within the authorities of provincial councils shall be divided into the specified number of wards, a number and a name shall be provided for these wards for the purpose of identifying those areas and the delimitation of the wards shall be commenced. Then the relevant report shall be handed over to the Minister in charge of the Provincial Councils within four months from the date on which the Delimitation Commission is asked to delimit wards and such delimitation shall be passed in the Parliament with a majority of two - thirds. Accordingly, to submit candidates who are to be elected from an administrative district as Member of a Provincial Council, political parties and independent groups have to submit the nomination paper in two lists namely, one list of candidates to be elected under wards and an additional list of candidates to be returned according to the proportional system. The candidate list of the electoral district is similar to the number of wards and the number of candidates in the district list shall be more than 3 members of the number of Members to be returned. Following the distribution of electoral districts, the Election Commission, at an election, published the number of Members to be elected from the district list and the ward lists under the administrative districts of each Provincial Council, considering the number of Members decided to be elected for each Provincial Council from the district list and the ward list and declared the number of women which shall be in the ward and district candidate list. 2 Accordingly, the relevant parties are legally bound to submit nominations along with a number of women not fewer than 1/6 of the ward candidate list of the district and not fewer than 50% of the district candidate list. 1.1. Local Authorities Election - 2018 The First Past the Post electoral system in force in Sri Lanka since 1865 was first amended as a proportional election system through Act, No. 27 of 1987. This mixed proportional representation system was thereafter gradually established by the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Act, No. 22 of 2012. A delimitation committee was set up to establish electoral districts according to this new mixed proportional system. A Review Committee was established to review the report submitted by that Committee and even though the committee’s term of office expired in 2008, no election was held at the proper time and in accordance with the new provisions amended by Act, No. 22 of 2012 the opportunity has come to hold the local authorities elections. Also, the Local Authorities Elections Act No. 16 of 2017 was passed to correct the technical errors of the Act that was to be implemented and to make changes in the electoral system. The introduction of special provisions for women's representation has been identified as a positive impact of this act. Accordingly, the nomination paper was made up of two parts, 10% of the candidates in the first nomination list and 50% of the candidates in the second nomination list viz., marking up an additional nomination paper should comprise women and a least 25% of women’s representations were required for each of the councils. Also, a special amendment of this Act is, if a party or a group wishes to nominate a nominee for the vacant post of a female member, it should definitely be a woman nominee. Although the necessary laws were amended regarding the holding of Local Authorities Elections in 2017, there was a tendency of postponing since the relevant procedures were not published in the gazette. However, there was disaffection among the mass organizations and the public and the media, civil organizations and the people submitted facts in this regard and pressured to hold elections. Accordingly, the Government published the local authorities procedural Gazette No. 2013/29 dated 07.04.2017 and it was published by Gazettes No. 2025/35 dated 30.06.2017 and 2043/56 dated 02.11.2017. Accordingly, the Returning Officers published the nomination notice on 27.11.2017. As this was stated before the court, the nomination notice was published for the non problematic local authorities by then. Thus it was decided to receive the nominations from 11.12.2017 to 14.12.2017. 3 The statutory activities to be carried out regarding the local authorities election were carried out in the following time frames. Nomination Stage I Nomination Notice - 27.11.2017 Receiving of Nominations - 11.12.2017 – 12 noon of 14.12.2017 Receiving of Postal Voting Applications - 27.11.2017 – 15.12.2017 Period for Appointment of Authorized Agents - Before 8.30 a.m. on 08.12.2017 Age limit of the Youth - 31.05.1995 – 14.12.1982 Nomination Stage II Nomination Notice - 04.12.2017 Receiving of Nominations - 18.12.2017 – 12 noon of 21.12.2017 Receiving of Postal Voting Applications - 01.12.2017 – 22.12.2017 Period for Appointment of Authorized Agents - Before 8.30 a.m. on 15.12.2017 Issuing of Poll Notice - 26.12.2017 Poll Date - 10.02.2018 Accordingly, the following days had been scheduled for the activities relating to the Local Authorities Elections. Notice of Issuing Postal Votes - 23.12.2017 Certification of Postal Votes - 10.01.2018 Issuing of Postal Votes - 12.01.2018 Marking of Postal Votes - 22/25/26.01.2018 and 01/02.02.2018 Handing Over to the Post Office - 18.01.2018 Special Distribution - 28.01.2018 Distribution of Official Poll Cards - Before 12 midnight of 04.02.2018 Period of Silence for Refrain from Campaigning - From midnight on 07.02.2018 until the end of the election on 10.02.2018 Poll - 7.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m. on 10.02.2018 Instead of previously held centralized counting, counting was carried out at each polling station or the ballot boxes of all polling stations of the division were brought into one polling station in the division and were separately counted. Nomination papers were handed over (by political parties and independent groups) at both stages and some of them were rejected due to non-conformity with the provisions of the Local Authorities Elections Ordinanace. The aggrieved parties in this regard and in regard to the cases where the names of candidates were rejected took 54 court actions and except the petition relating to the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha all other 53 petitions were rejected by the honorable court before the poll day.