The Parliament of Sri Lanka has outlined the procedure that will be followed for the election of a new President.
The vote to elect a new President will be held in Parliament tomorrow (20) via a secret ballot.
Issuing a statement, the Parliament said that although there was one previous experience of electing a president by the Parliament in Sri Lanka, this time is special.
In 1993, given the demise of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, D.B. Wijetunga was elected for the remainder of the term of President unanimously, without a poll as the succeeding President.
How will the voting be conducted?
Before voting begins, the Returning Officer shall show the empty ballot box or empty ballot boxes to the MPs and seal them.
It is special that the Speaker also has the right to vote in this election.
Thus, when the voting starts, the name of each MP including the Speaker and the Secretary-General who acts as the Returning Officer will be called. Then the member should go to the returning officer’s desk and get a ballot paper. Then the member in charge of the polling officer will make a short signature with his initials on the back of the ballot paper.
After that, the member who got the ballot paper should go to the booth arranged in the middle of the chamber, mark the ballot paper and place the short signature of the Returning Officer in a visible place in the box on the Returning Officer’s desk.
How to mark the ballot paper?
Each MP is entitled to only one vote and the vote should be marked with the number “1” in the box in front of the candidate’s name. There is also an option to mark preferences when there are multiple candidates. Accordingly, according to the number of candidates who have appeared, in the boxes in front of the names of other election candidates, 2, 3 etc. can be marked according to the order of preferences.
Here, if an error occurs in the marking of a ballot paper due to an oversight on the part of a member (the act states that if a member has inadvertently spoiled a ballot paper…) it can be returned to the Returning Officer and if the Returning Officer is satisfied with this, another ballot paper will be issued to him. Also, the spoiled ballot paper should be canceled immediately by the Returning Officer.
When the name of a member who has not voted is called, the name of a member who has not voted is called a second time before the end of voting, and if that member does not vote, he is considered to have abstained from voting.
How will the votes be counted and the winner announced? 113 votes to win?
After voting, the number of votes recorded for each candidate is counted. If a candidate wishes to come to the place where the counting of votes is conducted, he has the opportunity to do so or he can appoint another MP to represent him.
If a candidate receives more than half of the valid votes cast, the returning officer, i.e. the Secretary General of the Parliament, immediately announces that the candidate has been elected to the presidency.
If no candidate gets more than half of the valid votes cast, these proceedings will be extended a bit. Then the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated from the competition. If each MP who voted as first preference for the candidate removed from the competition has their second preference, they will be added to the respective candidate.
Even if no candidate has received more than half of the valid votes, the candidate who received the least number of votes in each calculation is removed from the competition, and votes are added to the remaining candidates in the second, third, etc.
Even after doing so, if no candidate has obtained half of the valid number of votes, the election officer will declare that the candidate who obtained the majority of votes at the end of the counting as above has been elected to the office of President.
Also, when the votes are equal between two or more candidates, a draw will be made at the sole discretion of the Returning Officer.
Also, the name of the candidate should be published by the Secretary-General in the Gazette within three days from the election of the President. (NewsWire)