COLOMBO, July 3: The Sri Lankan Government today proposed a new set of radical electoral reforms aimed at reducing the number of legislators in line with a new constitution that also seeks to end the country's prolonged war with Tamil rebels.

Releasing the proposals of new electoral reforms to replace the existing proportional representation system, justice and constitutional affairs minister Prof G L Peiris told a press conference here that it was important for the country to replace the present system as nearly 10 per cent of votes in every election were getting invalid in view of the complicated nature of the system.

He said under the new system, the strength of Parliament has been reduced to 198 from 225 in order to cut down the expenditure of the MPs. The new system proposes election of 99 members directly from the territorial constituencies.Another 95 would be elected on the basis of proportional representation from among the list of candidates provided by the political parties.Four seats would be given to minorities and two would go to smaller parties which secured more than 0.5 per cent of votes.

The new system provides two ballot papers to the voter one with the direct contestants and another the list of political parties. The government has opted for the new set of `radical reforms' as all the major peace proposals of the Chandrika government were stalled in Parliament for lack of two-third majority, according to observers here.

Few months ago, frustrated by the opposition, UNP's refusal to cooperate, the president threatened to launch a constitutional revolution in order to change the electoral laws, which were preventing any party getting a two-third majority.

The present election system under which the voter was asked to elect a MP was introduced by former president the Late Jayawardene, nearly a decade ago.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.