CMEV asks Faiszer to resign over delimitation fiasco

Minister of Provincial Councils, Local Government and Sports Faiszer Musthapha should resign from his post, having voted against the Delimitation Committee Report for the Delimitation of Electorates in Provincial Councils, he himself presented to Parliament on Friday, Manjula Gajanayake, National Co-ordinator of Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) told The Island.The vote on the Delimitation Committee Report for the Delimitation of Electorates in Provincial Councils was defeated by 139 votes with no one voting for it.

Gajanayake said that it was the first time in the Sri Lankan Parliamentary history that a political party had voted against a Bill presented by it. “Any government can lose a vote on a bill or a motion. But what we witnessed in Parliament is unheard of. If the Minister has any sense of shame, he should resign immediately.”

During the parliamentary debate, nobody pointed out weaknesses in the report and all of them wanted to delay the Provincial Council elections, the CMEV National Co-ordinator said, adding that if the report had been passed the Elections Commission would have been able to decided when to hold the PC polls.

Members of the United National Party (UNP), Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)-Maithri Faction, Joint Opposition and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) voted against it rejecting the holding of provincial council elections under the mixed electoral system. Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) was absent at the voting time.

The Delimitation Report was presented to the House by Minister Musthapha on March 6.