PC elections: A costly affair
The six provincial council elections held across Sri Lanka from time to time, has cost the country at least a whopping Rs. 1.5 billion, it is learnt.
A senior official at the Elections Department’s accounts division told The Sunday Leader that the department incurred a cost of around Rs. 130 per single voter, in terms of printing ballot papers and other relevant material necessary for the election. There are approximately 14 million registered voters in the country.
He said that according to initial estimates, the Eastern Provincial Council election held in May 2008 had cost approximately Rs. 147 million, while the North Central and Sabaragamuwa Province elections held in August 2008 cost Rs. 280 million.
The Central and North Western elections held in February this year cost Rs. 320 million, while April’s Western Provincial Council election cost Rs. 360 million and the Uva election held in June, cost Rs. 120 million.
He pointed out that they had still not finalised the cost of the Southern Province election, but expected it to be in the range of Rs. 200 to 300 million.
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An engineer from the University of Peradeniya now attached to a very reputed University of the USA had done a Cost-Benefit analysis using a sophisticated mathematical model on the perpermance of the Central Provincial Council.The cost data was obtained from the year 1989.
HE FOUND THE BENEFIT PER PERSON PER YEAR WAS LESS THAN 23 PER CENT.
Democracy is expensive. Provincial council model is not suitable for us. It is costly and adds to corruption. Why we need so many politicians? Smaller goverment is better government. Let us abandon PCs and return to the old model.