20% of those in parliament benefit from dynastic influence – and it is growing

by manthri.lk - Research Team posted over 9 years ago in Analysis

What enables a politician to get elected, and how important is it that he comes from a dynastic family: that is, where an immediate family member or close relative is already in political office at the national or provincial/local level?

Analysis by Manthri.lk, a pioneering online platform that monitors and ranks all the proceedings and actors in parliament, shows that dynastic influence maybe increasing in the Sri Lankan parliament. 20% of Sri Lankan parliamentarians are connected to a political family.

New MPs are more dynastic – its growing: At least 20% of parliamentarians benefit from dynastic influence. But more from among new MPs (those who have entered parliament for the first time). Amongst new MPs it is 23%, and among those re-elected it is only 18%.

UNF the most dynastic, but UPFA is driving the increase: The UNF has the highest proportion of dynastic MPs, both re-elected (33%) and new (28%) – but as the numbers show it is decreasing. The increase is being driven by the UPFA it has only 16% amongst the re-elected but over 23% of the new MPs in the UPFA benefit from dynastic influence (Exhibit 1).

The DNA has seen the most change in the MPs newly elected in the last election. While 16.7% of their re-elected MPs are dynasts, none of the new MPs are dynasts.


                               


National List helps to reduce dynastic influence: Among the new National list MPs, only about 8% have dynastic influence. But amongst the new district list MPs it more than triples to 26% (Exhibit 2). 


                           


Is this increase of MPs benefiting from dynastic influence a sign of things to come in the future? What bearing does it have on parliamentary democracy? Share your thoughts with us at www.manthri.lk/en/blog; or by text to the manthri.lk hotline: 071-4639882.