Dilrook Kannangara

Representative democracy is all about government through elected representatives. This is the only form of democracy in the world. Sadly, the top two elected representatives have been removed from their positions (and many other top vote winners too). The president and the prime minister currently serving have no mandate to rule the country. Elections must be called immediately.

Gotabaya was elected president with a large mandate in 2019 but is no more in politics. Incumbent president did not contest for the presidential election and did not win his seat at the parliamentary election either. He has absolutely no mandate to be the executive president.

Despite the lack of a mandate, he not only rules the island nation with executive powers but also makes irreversible and irresponsible decisions.

The parliament was elected in 2020. People’s preference can be reliably measured by the number of preference votes won by parliamentarians. 47 of them won over 100,000 preference votes. However, out of the 47 only 18 hold some form of minister post. The remaining 29 have been disregarded for shaping the policy of ministries despite public preference.

Therefore, the office of the president and the parliament do not represent voters.

It gets worse from there. Terms of Provincial Councils and Local Government bodies have long lapsed. They too have no mandate today.

All this means none of the governing bodies of Sri Lanka has any mandate to rule over the people but they still do so. This is not democracy.

Elections must be called, for all these starting from the very top (presidential election) as that is the most out-of-mandate governing body. It should be followed by parliamentary elections, provincial council elections and local government elections.