Sri Lanka local elections, 10th Feb 2018
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  Sri Lanka local elections, 10th Feb 2018
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Author Topic: Sri Lanka local elections, 10th Feb 2018  (Read 532 times)
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CrabCake
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« on: February 25, 2018, 09:00:18 PM »

Well, these happened earlier this month - big disaster overall for the Sirisena/Wickremasinghe coalition government with sworn enemy and former President Mahinda Rajapakse's SLPP (a previously minor party which turned itself into a refuge for Rajapakse's  loyalists) demolishing them almost everywhere, gaining control of 249 (out of 341) councils. They denounced the coalition government for perceived "selling-out" of the Sinhalese people to the Tamil parties (Rajapakse being chiefly known for his harsh anti-LTTE actions during the Civil War), as well as corruption, infighting and slashing of public services (the government has had to rely on the IMF, with the usual caveats of relying on loans from that organisation; and the Rajapakse regime + the war has led the nation hugely indebted).

This has led to a crisis in the aforementioned Sirisena/Wickremasinghe government. Their respective coalitions - United People's Freedom Alliance (dominated by the left-wing Sri Lanka Freedom Party) and the  United National Front (dominated by the centre-right United National Party) won 10 and 41 councils respectively, leading to the coalition almost collapsing this month. Sirisena fears the undermining of his authority, as well as the possible loss of parliamentarians to the SLPP (but the role of the President has been heavily curtailed by the government due to the excessses of Rajapakse so there's little he can do). Some sections of the UNP, for there part, blame their junior partner and want to form a minority government.

Other parties of interest are the Tamil National Alliance (the front group for the shattered terrorist group the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), which are no longer outwardly seperatist and swept much of "Tamil Eelam" taking control of 38 local authorities and the Castroist JVP, which got zero councils despite being fourth in the national vote.
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CrabCake
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« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2018, 09:32:51 PM »

A bright spot for the UNP was winning the capital Colombo with Mayor elect Rosy Senanayake, the first female Mayor of the city. Good news in general for female candidates, with a new electoral quota as part of a big electoral reform (MMP replaced a preferential system that was blamed for endless squabbling and parochialism) has meant a big boost. (although Sri Lanka was "ahead of the curve" in having the first elected female HoG in the world, the Freedom Party's Sirimavo Bandaranaike in practice this hasn't trickled down, with less local representation than countries like Bangladesh)
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jaichind
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« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2018, 08:17:57 PM »

Very impressive comeback by Mahinda Rajapakse.  Reading about the Sri Lanka local election system it seems it is very similar to the German election system.  You vote for a FPTP candidate but also a PR vote and the total number of seats are determined by the PR vote.   I wonder if they have the concept of overhang seats.
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