The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) says it is alarmed by the lack of consultation and procedure adopted in the passage of the Provincial Councils Elections Amendment Act.<\/p>\n
In a media release, Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) says that by making Substantial Committee Stage Amendments to the Provincial Council Elections Amendment Act, a key democratic check has been side-stepped as there is no opportunity to assess the constitutional conformity of the amendments.<\/p>\n
TISL is of the position that Committee Stage Amendments should only be made insofar as the Standing Orders of Parliament permit them.<\/p>\n
It notes that an amendment to introduce a wholly new electoral system, would, at the very least, require a discussion of principles.<\/p>\n
“In failing to adhere to this parliamentary procedure, it seems that the Legislation has been perverted to further delay elections due to the need for delimitation,” the release said.<\/p>\n
While commending the government for taking steps to bring in progressive reforms such as adoption of a mixed electoral system, TISL also expressed caution as public would be made aware of the new electoral system, only when the Act is published.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the issue, TISL Executive Director Asoka Obeyesekere said, “This is the archetypal illustration of closed government in practice – despite the government being a member of the Open Government Partnership.”<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka parliament on Wednesday passed the Provincial Council (PC) Elections (Amendment) Bill to increase female representation in Provincial Councils with two-third majority.<\/p>\n
Provincial Councils Elections (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend the Provincial Councils Elections Act, No. 2 of 1988 to make it binding on all political parties and independent groups to field at least 25 percent female candidates in Provincial Council elections.<\/p>\n
Courtesy: Colombo Page<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) says it is alarmed by the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-srilankan-news","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}