Situation Updates

Contributing to the ongoing discussion on electoral reforms the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence organised a public discussion on the regulations of campaign finance in elections and on the declarations of asset and Liabilities, held at the JKAB Park Hotel, Tricomalee on 31st  December 2016. The discussion was organised by CMEV in partnership with the Election Commission of Sri Lanka,  Paffrel and International IDEA and a number of Civil Society and political party Representatives attended this event. Assistant Commissioner of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka (Trincomalee)  Mr. Sajith Welgama delivered the key note speech in this event. Mr. Jagath Liyanarachchi, Attorney-At- Law, Mr. Shan Wijethunga, Human Rights Activist,  Mr. Manjula Gajanayake, National Co-ordinator, CMEV, and Mr. Sarath Gallage, Human Rights Activist were other speakers at this event.

Contributing to the ongoing discussion on electoral reforms the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence organised a public discussion on the regulations of campaign finance in elections and on the declarations of asset and Liabilities, held at the River Side Resort, Badulla on 29th December 2016. The discussion was organised by CMEV in partnership with the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, Uva Shakthi Foundation, Paffrel and International IDEA and a number of Civil Society and political party Representatives attended this event. Assistant Commissioner of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka (Badulla)  Mr. H.I.R. Hathurusinghe delivered the key note speech in this event. Mr. Jagath Liyanarachchi, Attorney-At- Law, Shan Wijethunga, Human Rights Activist,  Manjula Gajanayake, National Co-ordinator, CMEV, and Nadesan Suresh, Chairman, Uva Shakthi Foundation were other speakers at this event.

As a part of the short term action plan being implemented with the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, CMEV initiated a new programme to create awareness among police officers who are engaging  in election related duties during Elections. CMEV is planning to discuss the new election system introduced under the Local Authority Election (Amended) No. 22 of 2012, the main features of the election process as well as the political rights of persons with disabilities, in this awareness workshop series. The first event of the new initiative was conducted for the heads of election branches in police stations in the Kalutara district  at the Ramadia-Ranmal Resort in Moratuwa  on 16th December 2016. Mr. Saman Ratnayake , Additional Commissioner and Mr. Rasika Peiris, Deputy Commissioner  of the Election Commission, Mrs . Gayani Premathilaka, Legal Officer of the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government, and Mr. Manjula Gajanayake, National Coordinator of CMEV attended as resource persons in this event. This new programme is organised by CMEV in partnership with the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka police and CBM.

During the discussion on campaign finance and declarations of assets and liabilities organised by CMEV in partnership with International IDEA which was held at Janaki Hotel, Colombo 05 on 02 nd December 2016, CMEV launched   the translated version of the Delhi Declaration and the first copy was handed over to Mr. Mahinda Deshapriya, Chairman of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka by Dr. P. Saravanamuttu, Co-convener of CMEV. The Delhi Declaration on Political Finance Regulation is an outcome document agreed by Elections Management Bodies (EMBs) and other vigilant groups in South Asia initiated by   International IDEA, who together with the Electoral Commission of India, helped create the New Delhi Declaration, a set of political finance standards and guidelines for the South Asia region launched in December 2015. CMEV organized translation of the document into the Tamil and Sinhala languages  and created a public debate on campaign finance regulations based on this particular declaration. The Election Commission of Sri Lanka, CMEV and other several EMBs, Political parties and election observation missions in South Asia contributed to the development of this document.

Contributing to the ongoing discussion on electoral reforms the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence organised a public discussion on the regulations of campaign finance in elections and on the declarations of asset and Liabilities, held at the Janaki Hotel, Colombo 05 on 02 nd  December 2016. The discussion was organised by CMEV in partnership with International IDEA and the Election Commission of Sri Lanka and a number of Civil Society and political party Representatives attended this event. Chairman of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka Mr. Mahinda Deshapriya delivered the key note speech in this event and Victor Ivan, Former Editor of Ravaya who campaigned actively for years on the necessity for declarations of assets and liabilities of public representatives, also delivered a special speech marking this landmark victory in a long standing campaign. Dr. P. Saravanamuttu, Co convenor of CMEV, Mr. Champani Padmasekara, Senior Member of the Permanent Representatives Committee set up by the Election Commission on Election related complaints, Mr. Rohana Hettiarachchi, Executive Director of PAFFREL and Manjula Gajanayake, National Co-ordinator, CMEV were other speakers at this event. Mr. Adhy Aman Senior Programme Officer, Asia & the Pacific and Country Programme Manager, Bhutan, of the International Institute for Democracy  and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) also delivered a special lecture titled,  ‘’The Growing Cost of Campaigning: Challenges to Regulation and Enforcement’’.

  As a part of the short term action plan being implemented with the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, CMEV initiated a new programme to create awareness among police officers who are engaging in election related duties during Elections. CMEV is planning to discuss the new election system introduced under the Local Authority Election (Amended) No. 22 of 2012, the main features of the election process as well as the political rights of persons with disabilities, in this awareness workshop series. The first event of the new initiative was conducted for the heads of election branches in police stations in the Gampaha district  at the Covanro Hotel in Veyangoada, Gampaha on 06 th December 2016. Mr. Saman Ratnayake, Additional Commissioner and Mr. Vajira Gunawardene, Deputy Commissioner  of the Election Commission, Mr. Muditha Pussalla, Senior Superintend of Police, Mrs . Gayani Premathilaka, Legal Officer of the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government,  Dr.P. Saravanamuttu, Convener of CMEV  and Mr. Manjula Gajanayake, National Coordinator of CMEV attended as resource persons in this event. This new programme is organised by CMEV in partnership with the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka police and CBM.

The new edition of the quarterly Economic Review which is a one of the popular quarterly economic journals published by the Peoples Bank in Sri Lanka was dedicated to discussing the electoral process of the country, its past and current situation. This edition has been published in partnership with Election Commission of Sri Lanka and it was the first time this economic journal discussed electoral related matters. Manjula Gajanayake, National Coordinator of CMEV and Rohana Hettiarachchi, Executive Director of PAFFREL have written an article for this journal on ‘The Election Monitoring Process and its Direction in Sri Lanka’. Download the PDF of the article in Sinhala and English.

Title: An exposure visit with the view to share the experiences and best practices associated to local government related processes of participatory and citizen-centered governance was conducted in Passara Pradeshiya Sabha on the 8th, 9th and 10th of November, as   a part of the project titled ‘’Enhancing capacities of Local Authorities and Non-State Actors to address socio-economic concerns’’ implemented by CBM in partnership with European Union. CMEV was the facilitator of this exchange visit conducted Under the theme of “Learning better  practices from Passara Pradeshiya Sabha’’ Around 50 participants who took part in this initiative from the Northern  and southern provinces were able to imbibe important best practices of citizen-centered local governance while sharing their experience in relation to the community friendly innovative service mechanism driven by Passara Pradeshiya Sabha with the assistance of Passara Citizen Council (PZC) . PZC is a prime example for the citizen based initiatives which have been formulated with the view to improving the services and facilities provided by the local government authorities towards their own communities.

Download the high resolution PDF of this poster here.

CMEV has been engaging  in various initiatives of empowering disability organizations to achieve their political rights with special emphasis to voting rights of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and to create an inclusive discourse with that regard ensuring that the popular disability-related slogan ‘Nothing about us without us’ is given its true meaning. To this effect, CMEV has been conducting a series of programs aimed at the realization of the political / voting rights of the persons with disabilities in parallel with both national level elections held in the previous year as well. As a part of the newest chapter of the said initiatives, the first consultative discussion was held on the 10th of October in partnership with Fridsro Disability Rights organisation. Key representatives of DPOs in Central province took part in this occasion while Mr. Saman Sri Ratnayake, Additional Election Commissioner  attended this event as the main resource Person representing the Election Commission of Sri Lanka. The outcome document produced based on the information gathered at this consultative meeting, will be uploaded soon.

Over the past three months and 27 days, the Election Commission of Sri Lanka has been engaging in the enumeration of the electoral register 2016 in 14,022 Grama Niladhari divisions with the participation of 12,607 Grama Niladharis covering all 25 districts. Today in parallel to the conclusion of this process, CMEV presents its observations through a press release which can be downloaded here. The English and Tamil versions of the press release will soon follow.

Download the PDF here.

Download this as a PDF here.  

The objective of this event was to conduct a roundtable on election system design and the likely impact of the MMP system, with key academics working in the field. The Guest Speaker of this event was Dr. Andrew Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds is a Professor of Political Science and the Chair of Global Studies at UNC Chapel Hill (USA). He is also a lead author of the prominent International IDEA publication “Electoral System Design” and a recognized senior international expert. He has worked for the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and a range of other prominent international institutions. He has also served as an adviser on issues of electoral and constitutional design for 27 nations including Afghanistan, Burma, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Syria, Yemen and Zimbabwe. The Regional Manager of IFES Mr. Vasu Mohan, and Attorney At – Law, Researcher – CPA Luwie Ganeshathasan assisted in facilitating the event.

Hashanie Chithranganie, a Researcher at CMEV, expressed her ideas on the importance of the de-limitation process and its impact on electoral reforms in the country. She co-authored the book ‘History of the de-limitation process in Sri Lanka & a brief introduction on previous commissions’, recently published by CMEV. She has discussed on the findings of previous de-limitation commissions, the respective special features and other matters including the de-limitation review committee which has been appointed under the Ministry of Provincial Council & Local Government. The program named ‘Talk Back with Jayasiri’ was presented by W. Jayasiri and was produced by Lanka Puvath Ltd. as per the invitation of CMEV, a project being implemented in partnership with Open Society Foundation. Lanka Puvath Ltd. is the only state news agency of Sri Lanka which was established in 1978 and is a member of the Organisation Asia – Pacific News Agencies- OANA Pool.