So you think politics in India is complicated?

Go to Sri Lanka!

Sri Lanka's President Mithripala Sirisena addresses the nation at his party's office in Colombo. Photographs: Dinuka
Liyanawatte/Reuters

July 20, 2015

The country has a fiendishly complicated electoral system that is a combination of
population-based proportional representation and party-based national lists Aditi
Phadnis
As Indian Parliament gets ready to convene the monsoon session -- and prepares
itself for a washout -- it is worth considering what is happening in the parliament of its
tiny neighbour, Sri Lanka.
A quick recap for those who haven't followed politics in Sri Lanka closely: In January

this year, Mahinda Rajapaksa of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party was ousted from the
post of president.
The elections were due two years later -- Rajapaksa advanced them in a political
gamble he lost. Maithripala Sirisena, a minister in his government defected and
became the Common Opposition Candidate, supported by a bizarre coalition of a
large section of the SLFP (led mainly by Chandrika Kumaratunga, former president
and senior party leader), Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party, some
leaders of the Sinhala Buddhist clergy and parties representing the Muslims and
Tamils.
Because all the groups had disparate political ideologies, the COC decided to work on
a rigid 100-day agenda drafted in consultation with the alliance partners. This is what
in India we call the Common Minimum Programme. The idea was to dissolve
parliament after that and hold general elections.
The main issues in the elections and after were two: Although Sri Lanka is a
democracy, how could Rajapaksa foist so many of his relatives, friends and cronies in
positions of power and authority?

Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa gestures as he addresses his

supporters during a rally in Piliyandala.
There was clearly a systemic problem, Sri Lankans said, and plunged enthusiastically
to dismantle the executive presidency that centralised powers in the president (via
amendments in the constitution in the 1970s and 1980s, engineered by the wiliest
politician Sri Lanka has known, President J R Jayewardene).
The second was: what place do the minorities have in Sri Lanka, especially after the
2009 military campaign that crushed the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
planned and executed by the Sri Lankan army and then defence secretary (and the
president's brother) Gotabhaya Rajapaksa?
There were other complications. The nature of the alliance that elected Sirisena to
power was so peculiar that the ruling party had a mere 43 seats in a parliament of 225
members in which the largest opposition party had 126 seats. Obviously, this was not

tenable.
Before the executive presidency could be dismantled completely, Sirisena dissolved
parliament, declaring that the new parliament would rebalance the system, which
would have a president with the power to appoint the prime minister but with several
autonomous institutions like the constitution council, an anti-bribery commission etc to
advise him.
Meanwhile, after a short 'shock' phase, Rajapaksa bounced back and announced he
would run for prime minister. But from which party? Much to the shock of the antiRajapaksa faction of the SLFP, Sirisena caved in -- in enlightened self-interest after
many meetings with Rajapaksa supporters in smoke-filled rooms -- and said
Rajapaksa could be an SLFP nominee.
Rajapaksa filed his nomination from Kurunegala. And guess what? Rajapaksa's son
Namal and brother Gotabhaya were by his side when he filed his nomination. His
other brother, Basil, the former economy minister who was jailed after corruption
charges were filed against him and is currently out on bail, was not present.
Several human rights activists have said that if Rajapaksa wins the elections, the first
thing he would do is to wind up all the complaints against him and his family members
about 'disappearances' of political rivals and whistle-blowers.
Rajapaksa is not a pushover. In contrast to the right-wing free market proponent Ranil
Wickremesinghe, he has a large phalanx of support in the conservative Sinhala
Buddhist constituency, which recalls his populist schemes with nostalgia.
In the presidential election he got 90 out of 160 electoral districts and came out on top
in nearly all Sinhala-dominated provinces. He won around 55 per cent of the Sinhalese
vote. Sirisena won around 80 per cent of the Tamil vote and an even bigger share of
the Muslim vote that gave him the edge over Rajapaksa.
If Rajapaksa comes to power, China will pop the cork. India is staying on the sidelines
and waiting for the result.

The parliamentary election in Sri Lanka is scheduled for August 17, in a fiendishly
complicated electoral system that is a combination of population-based proportional
representation and party-based national lists.
But the man whose party gets the maximum members of parliament will become prime
minister. If you thought politics in India was complicated, go to Sri Lanka!

Posted by Thavam