By Raisa Wickrematunge
Each election has its own unique properties. This time of course, we have everyone from cricketers to athletes to teledrama actresses contesting. In fact, an unprecedented number of candidates with little or no political experience have decided to jump on the political bandwagon. Perhaps the foray of a retired General into presidential politics was the catalyst for this movement.
In any case, as the country is steadily plastered over with posters and cutouts, let’s take a minute to examine the facts and figures that make up General Election 2010.
7620 Number of candidates who have signed up for the political merry-go-round, according to Additional Commissioner, Elections Department, W. P Sumanasiri. That’s a lot of candidates. In fact, that’s a huge leap, when you compare it to…
5698 The number of candidates who registered to run at the 2004 general elections.
36 The number of political parties contesting this time.
301 Number of independent candidates, as opposed to…
192 Number of independent candidates in the 2004 elections.
127 Number of election-related incidents as of March 25, including assault and misuse of state property (figures by CAFFE)
46 Number of direct elections law violations as at the date above – according to CAFFE.
15 Incidents involving misuse of state property (CAFFE)
100 Number of times Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has called for a free and fair election.
11098 Number of polling booths that will be set up around the country so that the people can exercise their basic right to vote.
45957 Total number of IDPs in Jaffna, the Wanni, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampara, to name a few, who are qualified to vote.
416419 Total number of eligible postal voters at this election.
61691 Number of rejected postal votes.
22851 Number of votes rejected because of delays in sending in the application form before the deadline.
43281 Number of postal voters registered in Kurunegala, the highest number in any district.
3000 Number of Duminda Silva posters around Colombo.
06 Number of times main Opposition party UNP has won the general elections since independence
15000 Number of posters featuring a politician carrying a child/hugging the elderly.
There you have it — a laundry list of (mostly) factual figures which make up the general election 2010. Come April 8, it will certainly be interesting to see how many of the 7000 plus candidates make the cut.
Backgrounder: Mathematical complexity in Sri Lanka's parliamentary election
Here is a look at the mathematical wonder of appointing Members of Parliament (MP) based on the proportional representation (PR) system of election in Sri Lanka.
A total of 196 MPs elected from 22 electoral districts would join 29 MPs to be elected based on the national PR to make the total number of MPs in parliament to 225.
Every voter in addition to his vote for the party or independent group of his choice, is entitled to indicate his preference for not more than three candidates nominated by the same political party or independent group. But the preference votes could be cast only if he/she votes for the party/independent group of his choice.
The first step is the determination of the political party/ independent group which has polled the highest number of votes in the particular electoral district or in other words the party or group which won the district. The candidate who is in that party' s list with highest number of preference votes gets elected. This is popularly known as the "Bonus Seat."
Every political party/independent group polling less than 5 percent of the total votes cast in the district is disqualified from having any candidate elected. The votes polled by such parties are deducted from the total votes polled in the district. The balance is known as the "relevant number of votes."
Assuming the final result of the Colombo district would be as shown below;
Number of votes polled in the district 1,200, 000
Votes polled by party A 645, 000
Votes polled by party B 350, 000
Votes polled by party C 150, 000
Votes polled by party D 55, 000
The A party candidate who has secured the highest number of preference votes will get elected as an MP.
The number of votes polled by D would be deducted from the total votes polled. The relevant number of votes for Colombo would then be 1,145,000
The relevant number is then divided by one less than the number of members to be elected from Colombo, i.e.: 19-1 = 18
1,145,000/18 = 63,611
The D gets eliminated as they have polled less than 5 percent.
Thereafter number of votes polled by Party A, B and C is divided by 63,611 as given below;
Party A gets the bonus seat: 1
Party A's total votes 645,000/63,611=10 remainder 8, 890
Party B's total votes 350,000/63,611= 5 remainder 31, 945
Party C's total votes 150,000/63,611= 2 remainder 22, 778
The total number of MPs elected so far would then be 18. Still one more seat remains to be filled up.
The Party B would be entitled to this 19th seat as it has polled the highest remainder.
In case where remainders are level-pegging, the last seat would be decided by drawing lots.
The national list of MPs is created as follows:
After 196 members have been elected, the Commissioner of Elections will apportion the remaining 29 seats among the political parties/independent groups in the same proportion as the votes polled countrywide by each political party/independent group.
For example:
In the last general election the total votes cast was 7,943,706. When it was divided by 29 (seats) the result was 273,920.
Party A polled 3,887,823/273,920=14 seats
Party B polled 3,498,370/273,920=13 seats
Party C and D who polled 143,307 and 132,461 were entitled to the remaining two seats.
Source: Xinhua
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