An X or a number?

As the presidential election polling day approaches, it increasingly appears that the voters must be educated on how they mark the ballot papers. This applies particularly to how candidate preferences are marked. The wide perception at present is that none of the three principal contenders, RW, Sajith Premadasa and AKD (not in that order) will not top the magic 50 percent number of  the total vote cast. So there must be a second round of counting – something we have not experienced hitherto. This is where the expression of second and third preferences will come to play.

The best way of voting is to mark the ballot with a 1, 2 or 3 in the preferred order. That makes the voter’s choice absolutely clear. But we have in the past got used to marking a cross (X) against the candidate of choice. Even today, if you mark an X against one candidate and make no other mark on the ballot paper indicating that you are not expressing a second or third preference, your vote is in perfect order.  But if you mark an X and follow with a 1,2, and 3, you are in trouble and risk your vote being determined as spoiled.

Dr. Nihal Jayawickrema, an eminent legal academic who has held high office (Permanent Secretary Ministry of Justice and briefly Attorney General) in the Government of then Ceylon during Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike’s term during 1970 to 1977, has written a short article on the subject in this issue of our newspaper. We recommend you read it if you have the slightest doubt in your mind about how exactly you should mark your vote come Sept. 21. His article begins by back-grounding the issue. He points out that since Nomination Day, candidate advertising display in addition to a photo and symbol of himself, a box with a clear X in it. “The suggestion to potential voters is to exercise his/her vote by placing the letter X (kathiraya) against their names and symbols,” Jayawickrema says.

Therein lies the problem. Quoting the Presidential Election Act of 1981 verbatim, Jayawickrema says that the Third Schedule to the Act says that if the voter has specified only a second and third preference (and not a first) the ballot paper will be void and not counted. He further elaborates that the significance of placing the figure 1 (and not the letter X) is apparent from the procedure of the initial counting. In the first round, only the first preferences are counted, meaning votes bearing the figure one against a candidate’s name and symbol. There will be a further count only if no candidate has received over half the number of votes cast. If the 50 percent barrier is overcome, a clear winner is established and no further counting is required. If not, the votes of the candidates who finished first and second are set aside and the second and third preferences of the others will be counted.

Jayawickrema asks whether an X mark “necessarily mean approval?” He argues that in some contexts, such as when a teacher marks an X in an answer paper, it means the pupil has got his answer wrong. A reader in a letter published today says his grandson, seeing campaign advertising had asked whether a tick against the name/symbol of the candidate of choice be more appropriate than a cross (X). All that, of course, is not strictly relevant but as Jayawickrema advocates, the best course for the voter is to mark 1, 2 or 3 or only a 1 if he/she has no other preferences. This way you are expressing your choice exactly as stipulated by law with no ambiguity whatever.

Voter education on this matter, both on the part of candidates and the election authorities rates high priority.

A notable anniversary

The genesis of Sri Lanka’s national carrier, which under the Airlanka livery took wing in 1979 in the heady days of the JR Jayewardene regime after its landslide election victory in 1977, goes as far back as the middle forties when the idea of floating Air Ceylon with a modest fleet of three secondhand aircraft took root. On December 8, 1947, the first scheduled flight of the new airline from Ratmalana to Madras via Jaffna took wing. Capt. Elmo Jayawardena, an experience pilot whose father flew for Air Ceylon and who himself has flown for our own airline as well as reputed international carriers including Singapore Airlines, has written an article for this issue of our paper on the history of SriLankan Airlines which marks its 45^th anniversary on Sept. 1.

There is no need to labour the fact that the national carrier that enjoys an accident free record is carrying staggering debts in its books has long been up for sale. True, an LTTE terrorist bomb exploded a Male bound Lockheed Tristar aircraft boarding passengers in July 2001, breaking the aircraft into two and claiming 17 lives. Although that nearly finished off the airline then, Jayawardena recounts that it successfully fought for survival and has remained alive up to today. A long sad story has followed and there are ongoing unsuccessful attempts to at least part divest the airlines whose debts have been transferred to the government (read taxpayer).

While Jayawardena has not named names on either side of the ledger, he has not obfuscated the good and the bad which are very much a part of the airline’s history, and clearly remains a supporter of keeping it aloft both for the sake of its employees and the country itself. The need for a national carrier became most evident after the shameful July 1983 riots when international airlines gave Colombo a wide berth. Let the current chapter close with what is best for the country.