Department of Election

Electoral Process

The Advent of Democracy
The people of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) had the first opportunity of enjoying universal franchise in 1931 to elect their Members to the State Council. The first Parliamentary General Election was conducted in 1947 an year before independence from the British colonial rule of 130 years. The First Parliament was elected in 1947 under Ceylon (Constitution) Order in Council of 1946. The election was held on multiparty system. After 25 years, the first Republican Constitution was introduced in 1972 with the President as the Head of the State who was to be nominated by the Prime Minister. Later in 1978 the Second Republican Constitution was introduced, which promulgated the establishment of an Executive Presidency and a Parliamentary legislative.

The Franchise and Elections
Every person who qualifies to be an elector is eligible to vote at the Election of the President, Member of Parliament, Referendum, and Member of a Provincial Council, Local Authority, provided such person is registered in the appropriate register of electors.
Elections to be held in Sri Lanka There are five different elections in Sri Lanka, namely,


01	Presidential Election
02	Parliamentary General Election
03	Provincial Councils Elections
04	Local Authorities Elections
05	Referendum

Qualifications to register as an Elector
01	Must be a citizen of Sri Lanka.
02	Must have attained the age of 18 years on the qualifying date for the relevant register June 1st.
03	Must not have been found or declared to be of unsound mind under any law in force.
04	Must not have been serving or not served imprisonment during the immediate proceeding seven years.
05	Must be ordinary resident at the relevant address on the operative date.
06	No person is entitled to have his name entered or retained in more than register or more than once in the same register.

Process of Registration / Revision of Electoral Registers
01	Registration of Electors Registration of electors and revision of electoral registers is done annually. At the district level the Department of Elections is represented by an Assistant Commissioner of Elections (who is also the Assistant Registering Officer) to direct and control the revision work under the supervision of the District Secretary (earlier Government Agent), the administrative head of the District. The Commissioner of Elections appoints them as the Registering Officers of the respective Districts. The Registering Officer appoints enumerators to visit houses for compiling the names of voters. Chief occupants of each household are expected to perfect the enumeration form ( BC form ) supplied to them. The village level government officer, Grama Niladhari, undertakes the enumeration. Special Enumerators are appointed for this work in the Metropolitan areas. (eg. Colombo Municipal Council Area). The electoral registers are revised and prepared with reference to a qualifying date. i.e. all Sri Lankan citizens of age 18 years or above on June 1st are eligible to be registered at a qualifying address.
02	Publication of Lists of Names to be deleted (A) and List of names to be included (B) After collecting the completed documents ( BC forms ) at the District Offices, all names to be deleted ("A" List) and names to be included ("B" List) will be compiled and exhibited for a 28 day statutory period during the months of November / December each year. Claims and objections are entertained during the same statutory period for inclusion or retention of a name/names in the new register.
03	Certification of the Register On completion of inquiries into claims and objections and after such amendment electoral registers are retyped and prepared for certification during the month of May in the following year. The electoral registers so prepared are open to the public and valid for all elections that will take place thereafter until the next register is certified.
04	The work steps of the Annual Revision The work steps of annual revision and preparation of electoral registers are enumerated below:

Activity	Activity Period
Conducting of instruction classes for enumerators.	From 15th of May to 30th of May.
House to House Enumeration	From 1st of June to 31st of of Electors August.
Checking the enumerators' documents at district election offices.	From 15th of July to 15th of October.
Typing of names in "A" lists (names recommended for . deletion from current electoral register) and "B" lists (lists containing the new names recommended for inclusive in the revised electoral register) on stencils.	From 1st of August to 20th of October
Exhibition of "A" and "B" lists.	From 1st of November to 28th of November.
Holding inquiries into claims and objections.	From 15th of December 15th of January of the following year.
Typing the electors' names on stencils and checking the same. )	From 15th of January to 15th of April.
Roneoing the stencils and binding copies of registers..	From 01st of February to 25th of May.

Under the constitution and the election law the Department of Elections is expected to fulfil two objectives; holding elections for electing the representatives to the legislatures; national, provincial and local and preparation of electoral registers annually after an enumeration of electors. Since all the activities of the Department of Elections involve implementation of the laws and regulations in relation to elections, there is a misconstruction that activities of the department are static, periodical and they could be considered as routine. Now the time has come up to get change this attitude due to various reasons. Consequent to the introduction of the new election laws with the system of Proportional Representation in 1978 all elections become one-day elections and the department was compelled to be in readiness to hold some election of frequency of say every 15 months. Political parties, candidates, the general public, civil organizations which involve in elections at various levels are very keen on having a democratic electoral process as a basic for good governance. Therefore taking of any step that would help the development of the electoral process which fulfils the objectives of the underlined principles in the election laws can be considered as a national priority as commitment.

Administrative Organization of the Department
Elections Secretariat, Sarana Mawatha, Rajagiriya.

Province	District	Location
Western Province	Colombo	Colombo City Office, Kota Road, Rajagiriya. Colombo District Office, Glenaber Place, Colombo 4
	Gampaha	Elections Office, Gampaha.
	Kalutara	Elections Office, Kalutara.

Central Province Matale	Matale	lections Office, Matale
	Nuwara-Eliya	Elections Office, Nuwara-Eliya
	Kandy	Elections Office, Kandy.

Southern Province	Gallle	Elections Office, Galle
	Matara	Elections Office, Matara.
	Hambantota	Elections Office, Hambantota.

Northern Province	Jaffna and Kilinochcchi	Elections Office,Jaffna
	Vavuniya and , Mullaitivu	Elections Office,Vavuniya
	Mannar	Elections Office, Mannar

Eastern Province Ampara	Ampara	Elections Office,Ampara
	Batticaloa	Elections Office, Batticaloa
	Trincomalee	Elections Office, Trincomalee

North Central Province	Anuradhapura	Elections Office, Anuradhapura.
	Polonnaruwa	Elections Office, Polonnaruwa.
	Badulla	Elections Office, Badulla.
	Moneragala	Elections Office, Moneragala.
	Ratnapura	Elections Office, Ratnapura.
	Kegalle	Elections Office, Kegalle.

Counting and Announcement of Results
01	The counting of votes commences immediately after the receipt of the last ballot box of a Counting Centre around 8.00 p.m. on the date of poll. Counting begins in the presence of the Counting Agents not more than five agent of a political party or an independent group.
02	Except at the Presidential and Referendum elections where the whole country becomes one electorate in other elections results are announced at two stages. Firstly the result of the vote count and secondly the results of the count of preferences. In all these instances vote results are announced under each polling (area) division and finally the electoral district result.
03	Returning Officers of the respective electoral areas (District Secretaries) manage the conduct of poll and the count of votes, with the assistance of Assistant Returning Officers and the subordinate staff. Local announcement of results are done by the Returning Officers only after the approval of the Commissioner of Elections. Announcement of Results to the Nation is done by the Commissioner through Radio and Television from his office.

Counting Procedure
Counting of votes and preferences including postal votes is vested with the Returning Officer. Each Counting Centre of an Electoral District consist of average limit of 10,000 registered electors. Here the counts are due to commence only after the last ballot box assigned to it has arrived at the centre. Counting of postal votes commences after 4.00 p.m.

Arrangement of the Count.
The process of counting of votes can be classified into three stages.

01	Stage 1 - Counting of the number of ballot papers in each box and transferring them to the trough.
02	Stage II - Sorting and counting the ballot papers according to the valid votes received and the preparation of the statement of votes received by each party and group in the Electoral District.
03	Stage III - Recording the preferences received by each candidate in the Tally Sheet and transferring them through a series of Summary Sheets into a District List for a party or a group, which gives the total of preferences received by each candidate in the Electoral District.

Stage I

a	Ballot papers in each box are counted and compared with the figures given in the ballot papers account. If there is a discrepancy this process will be repeated until either the figure in the ballot paper account or the counted figure is repeated. Finally if there is a discrepancy, whether plus or minus, it will be recorded..
b	The number of ballot papers in the box is counted and verified with figures in the ballot paper account. Thereafter it is recorded with the relevant details. This process will continue until all the ballot boxes disposed of, in this manner.

Stage II

Ballot papers are sorted according to the votes cast in favour of each party or group. Any doubtful ballot papers are passed on to the counting officer for determination on their validity. The counting officers are always advised to give their decisions on doubtful ballot papers as and when they are presented to them without waiting for the end of the count. The valid ballot papers are prepared into bundles of fifty ballot papers and of such bundles into 500 ballot papers until all ballot papers are so sorted and bundled and placed in the proper boxes or trays kept on the table of the counting officer. At the end of this stage, the counting officer will hand over the statement on the number of votes to the Returning Officer, With the receipt of such Statements the Returning Officer finalize the statement of votes for the entire district, based on this statement is the membership of Parliament of that district, amongst the contestant parties and groups is allocated

Stage III

Preferences marked for candidates are counted in this stage. At the commencement of this stage of the count ballot papers remain in bundles of 50 and 500 per party.

Preference count commences with the ballot papers of the party with the highest number of votes in that counting centre. Prior to the Commencement of recording of preferences these ballot papers are sorted, to select those ballot papers which are not considered valid for the preferences count. Included in this category are ballot papers -

(i)	with no preferences marked.
(ii)	with preferences marked for more than three candidates, and
(iii)	void for uncertainty

The valid ballot papers are then sorted out in following three categories:

(i)	Ballot papers with only one valid preference.
(ii)	Ballot papers with only two valid preferences.
(iii)	Ballot papers with only three valid preferences

The valid ballot papers are counted and re-bundled into bundles of 50 and fastened with rubber bands, paper-wrappers
and a bull-dog clip. A Preference Tally Officer examines each ballot paper in a bundle of 50 and records the preferences
received by each candidate in the Tally Sheet. These entries are made with a blue pen.

Once the entries in respect of a bundle are completed and totaled, then it is passed to the officer on the opposite side of
the table to check every entry. That officer uses a red pen and marks every entry in proof of the check he has done.

At the conclusion of this check, the bundles along with the Tally Sheets are passed on to the next stage of the table
where the totals of each Tally Sheet will be entered in the First Summary Sheet and they are totaled again

These First Summary Sheets are then passed on to the next stage of the table to enter the totals in the Second Summary
Sheet. The totals of preferences per candidate will be the final total of preferences for that counting centre. At the stage
that these Second Summary Sheets are completed for a single party, the counting officer reports to the Returning Officer.
This exercise is continued until the preferences received by all parties and groups are separately prepared and handed
over to the Returning Officer. At this stage the counting of votes and preferences in a counting centre comes to an end.

On receipt of the statement of preferences from each of the counting centre the Returning Officer prepares the Final
Statement of Preferences of each candidate for the district.

Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers
The Commissioner of Elections has appointed Government Agent/District Secretary of each Administrative District as the Returning Officer for each Electoral Districts except Jaffna and Vanni Electoral Districts. In the case of Jaffna Electoral District which has both Jaffna and Kilinochchi Administrative Districts, the Government Agent of Jaffna function as Returning Officer, while in the case of Vanni which has Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu Administrative Districts, Government Agent of Vavuniya functions as Returning Officer.

Several other officers were also appointed as Assistant Returning Officers to assist the Returning Officer in the performance of his duties. Assistant Commissioners of Elections of each Administrative District function as an Assistant Returning Officer and he is in overall charge of the organising Elections in District as the representative of the Commissioner of Elections.