PAFFREL calls on the Elections Commission to reconsider the party registration criteria and to review the parties that do not continue to contest elections, parties that do not engage in active politics, annually or every few years and formulate a draft procedure to deregister them.
PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi has sent a letter to the Chairman of the Election Commission Nimal Punchihewa requesting this.
The letter further states:
It should be noted that PAFFREL commends the decision taken not to register political parties which have been the subject of much discussion in the society for a long time after the appointment of the present Election Commission on the basis of ethnic or religious affiliation and religious official names. We also believe that the progressive decision taken to give a reasonable time to the amendment if a religious or ethnic concept is implicit in the official names of the recognized political parties that are currently registered, also ignites the expectations of pantheism in the society. These issues have been raised by PAFFREL for decades and we emphasized this point in our proposals to the Legislative Council last year.
For more than three decades, we as a country have paid too much for the racial and religious divisions created in society in the pursuit of various narrow goals. The bold decision taken by the Election Commission in an environment where no factors that create racial or religious disunity should be allowed in the society is commendable. In the past, it has been seen that political party registration seeks to be done for business and other personal purposes without any political motives. At the same time, the denigration of paganism and the large number of political parties contesting elections for various other purposes without a public base is a great waste of public money. I therefore request that the party registration criteria be reconsidered and that parties that do not continue to contest elections, parties that do not engage in active politics be reviewed annually or every few years and a draft be formulated to deregister them.
It is also regrettable that the composition of the decision-making bodies of the present political parties is not given ample space to represent the views of women in those boards. Although an amendment to the Party Registration Act of 2011 was added in this regard, it is expected that at least one member should be included in the decision making boards of the parties, but at present no such representation of women can be seen in the executive boards of some of the parties represented in Parliament. Therefore, I kindly request you to instruct the political parties to give at least one of the key posts of the parties at the forthcoming annual conventions.