As many of us have witnessed, the political culture in Sri Lanka has been deteriorating over the time. In 2012, the election-monitoring watchdog Paffrel started an island wide multi-stakeholder consultation to identify the root causes of this deterioration. Academics, professionals, civil society, youth, religious leaders, political party representatives, trade unions, business community, media ar
ound the country were consulted in this process. In parallel, an island wide research study was carried out to gather and analyse the public opinion in this regard. The final product of the consultations and research study was presented at BMICH, Colombo, on 12th March 2015 as a set of proposals with criteria that the political parties could adhere to, in nominating the candidates in the country’s elections. Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and a number of representatives of other political parties and civil society leaders endorsed and signed the proposed criteria known as the “March 12 Declaration”. Now it’s the moment of action to create mass awareness, public consciousness, as well as binding of the all political parties to the March 12 Declaration, which ultimately created the “March 12 Movement” as a civil society collective. Massive, island wide public and online campaign will be launched from 25th June to 05th July 2015 to collect 1 million signatures demanding all political parties to adhere to the 8 preliminary principles in selecting their candidates for the forthcoming parliamentary election. The 8 preliminary principles of concern are;
The persons nominated by the political parties as the candidates in the forthcoming parliamentary election;
1. Should not be a person who had served a jail sentence for a crime, or a person who has received a suspended sentence by the courts of law
2. Should not be a person who had been proven guilty for bribery and/or corruption, and should be acceptable to society as a person of good character (be cautious when considering people who are widely alleged of bribery and/or corruption charges)
3. Should not be a person who is engaging or had engaged in the past in the trades such as alcohol, drugs, gambling, casinos and prostitution, that are detrimental to the wellbeing of the society and country
4. Should not be a person who is engaging or had engaged in trades, which destroys the ecological life support systems and the environment
5. Should not be a person who has abused political power
6. Should not be a person who had entered into financial agreements prejudicial to the country before becoming a people’s representative; who has abused power as a people’s representative and entered into such financial agreements with the government; or has been a party to such agreements
7. The candidate should be either a resident or have an amiable relationship with the residents of the area that he represents
8. The political party should provide adequate opportunities for women and youth representation when nominating the candidates
