Hon. Ravi Karunanayake

¶ 01 SELECT COMMITTEE TO REVIEW THE LAWS DEALING WITH ELECTIONS AND REPORT TO PARLIAMENT AND SUBMIT ITS PROPOSALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS IN THAT REGARD

¶ 02 Hon. Speaker, I move,

¶ 03 “Hon. Ravi Karunanayake Hon. Anuradha Jayaratne, Attorney-at-Law Hon. Rohitha Abeygunawardhana Hon. Chamara Sampath Dasanayake Hon. Faiszer Musthapha, PC,

¶ 04 Whereas over the last several years numerous attempts have been made to reform the Electoral System of Sri Lanka;

¶ 05 And whereas Select Committees to look into the Electoral System Reform have been appointed on many occasions;

¶ 06 And whereas several interim reports have been presented by these Committees; and

¶ 07 Whereas no action has been taken to implement the recommendations of these Committees;

¶ 08 That this Parliament resolves that a Select Committee of Parliament be appointed to review the laws dealing with Elections and report to Parliament and submit its proposals and recommendations in that regard, including the following:

¶ 09 (a) review the laws dealing with elections more particularly the Registration of Electors Act, the Local Authorities Elections Act, the Provincial Council Elections Act, the Parliamentary Elections Act and the Presidential Elections Act, together with the several amendments made to the said Acts over the years and the Special Provisions Acts made applicable to the provisions of the Acts set out above;

¶ 10 (b) assess the need to revise, amend and consolidate these Acts;

¶ 11 (c) recommend the reform and amendments necessary to the current laws dealing with elections;

¶ 12 2. (a) that the Chair and Members of the Committee shall be appointed by the Speaker; and (b) that in terms of the provisions of Standing Order 101 of Parliament, the Committee shall not consist of more than twelve (12) Members.

¶ 13 3. That the Committee shall have the power to - (a) fix its quorum; (b) summon any person to appear before it, to require any person to procure any document or record, to procure and receive all such evidence, written or oral, as the Committee may think it necessary for the fullest consideration of the matters referred to above; (c) obtain the services of specialists and experts in the relevant fields to assist the Committee; and (d) make interim reports from time to time and to sit notwithstanding any adjournment or prorogation of Parliament.

¶ 14 4. The Committee shall present its report to Parliament within a period of one year (01) of the date of its first sitting or such other or further time as Parliament may grant.”

¶ 15 Sir, as the Government has already taken up the matter of Provincial Councils Elections at another Select Committee, I will keep it out because there could be duplication and also it could be used insidiously in order to delay things. So, that particular matter, as the Government is already going ahead with that, I will leave out, if that is legally permissible.

¶ 16 Sir, I would like to say “three months”, but practically it is unattainable. Now that we have taken the Provincial Councils element out, I would prefer to say, “a period of six months of the date of its first sitting or such other or further time as Parliament may grant”.