ජාත්‍යන්තර සමාජවාදී විකල්පය – ශ්‍රී ලංකාව

A fundamental concept of liberal democracy is that any citizen can contest for the leadership of the state. CItizens should be given the opportunity to ​​​​​​​run in presidential, parliamentary, and other elections. Although some limits may be imposed on the basis of the personal character of citizens competing for those positions, property rights, social status, etc. should not be taken into consideration. Therefore, if a security deposit is to be deposited by a contestant, it should be at a level that the contestant can afford.

Sri Lanka’s Second Republic Constitution imposed restrictions on contesting for the leadership of the state. Accordingly, only candidates presented by a recognized political party or a former or current member of the Sri Lankan legislature can compete for the presidency. Therefore, approximately 1000 Sri Lankans can dream of becoming state leaders. Last April 9, the cabinet decided to instruct the law drafting departments to prepare the conditions for further restricting the running for the presidency. Accordingly, it has been decided to increase the bail amount of 50,000 rupees($ 167/-) to be deposited by a presidential candidate from a recognized political party to 26,00,000 rupees($8667/-) and the bail amount of 75,000 rupees($250/-) to be deposited by an independent candidate to 31,00,000 rupees.($ 10,333/-)

Thus far, there has been no need to deposit security for parliamentary or provincial council candidates contesting from a recognized political party. However, according to the current decision, it has been decided that a deposit of Rs.11,000/-($37/-) is required to be a candidate for the General Election. It has been decided to increase the security amount of 2000 rupees to be deposited by an independent candidate to 16,000 rupees($53/-). It has been decided that the deposit of a candidate of a recognized political party for provincial councils should be 6,000 rupees.($20/-) It has been decided that the deposit of an independent candidate for Provincial Council should be 11,000 rupees ($37/-) instead of 2000 ($7/-) rupees. Because of this rise in the deposit for presidential candidates, the left-wing political parties are taking steps to withdraw the idea of contesting the presidential election. The reason for this is that the leftwing political parties do not have the wealth to deposit such a large deposit. Because of these decisions, the current administration is trying to open the doors of presidential candidacy only to the rich and the political parties representing the rich.

Individual candidates cannot compete in parliamentary and provincial council elections. Candidate lists are to be submitted. Accordingly, the deposit for one list of candidates is huge. It is also a burden that economically poor political parties or independent groups cannot bear. The rulers may be thinking that in this way, these institutions will be able to prevent competing left or alternative parties or groups, and therefore those institutions will be full of rich people.