By Zacki Jabbar
A government Minister yesterday dropped a bombshell calling for an end to the sickening practice of crossovers mid term,which has resulted in the voters being cheated and left humiliated time and again.
Deputy Foreign Minister Neomal Perera when asked if the need of the hour was to stop unethical defections by reintroducing the by-election system which would ensure that Members of Parliament and other elected bodies who wanted to switch parties mid-term for various perks and privileges, would lose their seats and be forced to seek the voters consent, replied “I fully agree with you, but it should be a mixture of the first past the post and proportional representation systems”.
“This would ensure a fair deal for the minority parties as well.”
Acknowledging that constitutional interpretations had led to the voter being cheated and the Opposition decimated in violation of the peoples will, the Minister proposed that for example in Puttalam District which he represented, the total number of eight parliamentary seats should be determined in the proportion of five is to three, meaning five to be elected under the first past the post system and three according to the PR method.
He emphasized that whichever manner in which a candidate was elected, if he or she decided to switch parties mid-term, they should be required to face a by-election.
“Enough is enough”, he smilingly replied when pointed out that if a UNP led alliance was to capture power, there would be an exodus of elected UPFA members to the new government, resulting in there being no strong opposition to defend the citizens rights.