By Maheesha Mudugamuwa The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) says the five-member committee appointed by the Speaker and chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was another trap created by the Government to postpone the elections. It called the Government to go for elections immediately under the new mixed electoral system. In an interview with The Sunday Morning, the JVP National Organiser MP Bimal Rathnayake said the Government should hold the provincial council election under the new system as it would ensure better representation for women and elect members answerable to their respective electoral wards. He however, said that the Government would not be able to hold the election before April. Following are excerpts of the interview: Q: The JVP abstained from voting on the delimitation report in Parliament. Why? A: Yes. We abstained from voting because for the first time in Sri Lankan history, a report presented by the Government, was rejected by the representatives of the Government and that even the subject minister voted against it. If the minister who presented it says that it is wrong then how are we to vote for it? But the JVP stance on this delimitation report incident is that the UNP, SLFP, and Mahinda Rajapaksa’s faction was trying to delay the provincial council election or they are trying to hold the election under the old system. JVP is totally against it. We endorse the new mixed electoral system introduced at the last local government election. Now the problem is that in order to hold the election under the new system, a delimitation report is necessary. By defeating the report, the Government has made it impossible to hold the election. Now an election cannot be held. If not, the Act should be repealed. Even though the speaker appointed a committee chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to review the defeated delimitation report, it is only a smart decision taken by the Government to postpone the election. At the debate in Parliament on the delimitation report, no one argued the facts of the report. What everyone says is that the report is wrong and they wanted to hold the election under the old system. The committee will only belittle the delimitation team which comprises educated professors and experienced government officials. They have spent their valuable time toward the compilation of the report. The President has belittled the committee that he appointed and likewise, now the Prime Minister will belittle the new committee which is appointed by the speaker to review the report. There will not be any changes but the election will definitely be postponed further. Q: Is the JVP supportive of a mixed electoral system for the provincial council elections? If not what is the JVP proposing? A: Yes. The JVP is supportive of the mixed electoral system for the provincial council elections. The new system was approved by the Parliament with the majority votes. Therefore, there is no ground for anyone to oppose the system. Now they argued that the new electoral system has created a mess in the local government bodies, which is not true. The mess is created when the elected members started to cross over to gain cheap political advantages or for money. The mess is due to the current political reality. Earlier there were only two major political parties; but now there are four main political parties. The situation is more similar to India. With the regional parties starting to contest at elections, none of the major political parties gain the majority votes. When we consider the situation which occurred in Negombo, Deraniyagala, and Galle, the stability of those LG bodies was weakened when the members started to cross over. The bottom line of this whole scenario is that the parliamentarians are afraid that the new mixed electoral system would apply to the general elections as well. They know that they cannot win the election as they used to run for election by spending huge sums of money for political campaigns. Q: Do you feel the stalemate in finalising an electoral system for the provincial council elections could be resolved and elections could be held by early next year? A: No. We don’t think that the Government will be able to hold the election before April though the Minister said so. The committee was appointed not to hold or expedite the process but to delay the election. Q: The JVP earlier opposed the provincial council system under the 13th Amendment, but has since participated in the PC polls. Has the party changed its stance on the provincial council system? A: We are opposed to the executive presidency. The parliamentary election process is not fair but we are still participating. The JVP is opposed to the provincial council system on principle. That is the policy we have taken right from the beginning. We, the JVP, do not believe that the PC system is the panacea for problems confronting the ethnic Tamils. It is true that the Tamil people are enduring immense hardships. But, we should politically convince them that the PC system is not the way out for them. It has been proven unsuccessful. The problems of the people remain unsolved or unattended, but the party needs a political platform to reach the people and that is why the JVP is still contesting the PC election. Q: The Tamil speaking community has been calling for the further strengthening of the provincial council system. Is the JVP opposed to it? A: There are serious issues in the North. The JVP is the only party which stands for the rights of the people in the North. They have employment issues, land issues and there are nearly 90,000 widows due to the war. Those are the serious issues the Government and the political parties should address, but all other parties including the TNA are doing cheap political campaigns by distributing arrack bottles or lunch packets to get their votes. That sort of politics should be eradicated from the North and instead there should be more effective systems to address the real issues. Q: Despite being a voice against crime and corruption, the JVP has still been unable to gain control of any office of public representation. Why is that? A: Yes. This is tough. People are addicted. When there are only two main political parties in power in a country for a long period of time, the people tend to vote for those parties instead of looking for another solution. We are studying the reasons for this issue. The candidates of those parties are spending a huge sum of money for their campaigns. We are not going to increase our voter base through corrupt methods. We don’t tell lies to people. If we only focus on obtaining the votes, then we will be able to do so, but we are not going to apply corrupt methods. We have a good strategy and we don’t want to be another SLFP or UNP. If we follow the corrupt methods to be in power, we will also have to rule the country like them. Therefore, we are trying to educate the people and to get their votes. We know that it will take some time but we are determined to follow those methods. Q: How do you see the past three years of the Yahapalana Government? Do you see a difference from the period of the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime? A: To be honest, there is no difference between now and then. The same political formula is followed by the present Government. This Government vowed to take action against corruption and frauds of the former rule. It didn’t happen. Corruption and frauds continue unabated. For the last 70 years, the people of this country have invested in a corrupt political culture. Therefore, the people had to vote for another set of corrupted politicians in order to send a corrupt Government home. This is the issue. The Yahapalana Government was brought into power by the civil society and it received the majority of floating votes, but President Sirisena betrayed the country in 2015. He came into power to eradicate corruption and financial misappropriation. Actually, former President Rajapaksa did not betray the country as people did not expect him to end the corruption. Therefore, the JVP is planning to form an alliance with the people who voted for the Yahapalana Government. People don’t have any expectations of the Yahapalana Government anymore. The JVP will not support any other political party in future elections. We won’t form coalitions. If we couldn’t repeal the executive presidency, we will contest for the presidential election as well. When it comes to the JVP candidates, we don’t indulge in corruption and have no record on frauds. Many professionals, educated youth, and women will join hands with the party cadres. We will introduce a code of conduct for all the candidates and we will form a broad political front at the 2020 elections.