The value of the preference vote

By Suriya Wickremasinghe

(January 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This briefing paper responds to questions received by CRM about the counting of preferences at the Presidential election A decision how to vote, or whether to vote at all, should be an informed decision. This note deals with just one aspect on which the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) has received a number of queries, namely how the votes and the preferences are counted.

1) There is an INITIAL STAGE of counting votes, and then POSSIBLY one more stage at which preferences are counted.

2) The ballot paper at the present election will have 22 names on it; the names will be in all three languages and each candidate’s symbol will be against his name. (These names and symbols have been published in the Gazette – copy available from CRM; please specify language). You must write number 1 against the candidate you are voting for, and you may write numbers 2 and/or 3 denoting your preferences against one or two other candidates.

NOTE THAT IF YOU FAIL TO MARK YOUR VOTE BY WRITING No.1 AGAINST A CANDIDATE, YOUR ENTIRE BALLOT IS INVALID AND WILL BE REJECTED.

3) Let’s now jump forward to the COUNT. The votes of the candidates who have the number 1 against their names are counted, and at this stage the 2nd and 3rd preferences are IGNORED. During this process, a number of ballot papers will be REJECTED for various reasons, for instance if they have been deliberately spoilt. The number of rejected ballot papers can turn out to be important (this too we will explain later) so if you want your vote to have value you should be careful how you mark your ballot paper. (See box at end of this paper for reasons why a ballot paper will be rejected).

4) Once the No.1 votes are counted, then the two candidates who get the highest and the second highest number of votes become the ONLY CANDIDATES in the contest. All the other candidates are eliminated from the contest. BUT, as we will see below, the No 2 and No 3 preferences on their ballot papers may turn out to be very important.

5) We are now left with just TWO candidates. Let us call them candidate X and candidate Y. If one of them has received more than half of the valid votes cast then he is declared elected and that is the end of the matter. Please note that it has to be over half of the valid votes cast. That is why we said that the number of ballot papers rejected can be important. The less the number of valid votes cast, the lower is the number that constitutes half of them.

6) What this means is that when voters think their preferred candidate cannot win the election, and therefore do not go to the polls, or go to the polls and deliberately spoil their votes, such voters make it easier for another candidate to win the election without having to go to a SECOND STAGE as explained below.

7) If neither candidate X nor candidate Y has received more than half the valid votes cast, then we go on to a SECOND STAGE.

8) The ballot papers cast for the two candidates X and Y are now set aside – these are the ballot papers in which No.1 was marked either for X or for Y. The preference votes on these ballot papers will NOT be counted. 9) The preference votes of ALL the other candidates (that is to say the candidates who have been eliminated from the contest) are then looked at. Whenever there is a SECOND preference (that is, the number “2” marked) for X or Y, that is added to their respective totals. BUT the grand total is NOT arrived at yet.

10) There will still be ballot papers in which neither X nor Y has been marked as
No 1 or No 2. As part of the same operation just described, these remaining ballot papers are examined, and wherever there is a THIRD preference (that is, the No. 3 marked) for candidate X or candidate Y, that is added to their respective totals.

11) The total votes received by candidates X and Y respectively are then ascertained. These will be made up of No.1 votes and, most probably, some No. 2 preference votes, and some No. 3 preference votes. At this stage the No.1 vote and the preference votes all have equal value. The candidate who has the higher number of votes is declared elected.

12) The winner is declared elected at this stage even if he has still not got more than half of the valid votes cast.

NOTE: A BALLOT PAPER WILL BE REJECTED IF:

(a) it does not bear the official mark (this is stamped on the ballot paper at the
polling station at the time it is issued to the voter, to prevent forgery)
(b) anything is written or marked on it by which the voter can be identified (except
the printed number on the reverse)
(c) it is unmarked (i.e. blank)
(d) it is void for uncertainty
(e) The voter has

- not voted for any candidate: or
- voted for more than one candidate (by this is meant the No.1
vote); or - specified a second preference or a third preference only, or
both such preferences only
[Presidential Elections Act No. 15 of 1981 Section 51 (1)]