‘Polls phobia’

Wednesday 12th January, 2022

The government should be ashamed of having postponed the Local Government (LG) polls by one year on some flimsy pretext. A regime that fears elections is a danger to democracy, as we have argued in a previous comment. The ruling party spokesmen are making a vain attempt to convince the public that the mini polls have been put off in view of the pandemic. The country is fully open, and people are moving about freely; large gatherings are a common sight. When health authorities asked for travel restrictions towards the end of the last month, the government insisted that there was no need for such measures. So, how can Covid-19 be cited as the reason for the LG polls postponement? Moreover, Co-Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Ramesh Pathirana is reported to have said the Provincial Council (PC) elections will be held this year. One should not be so naive as to expect the government to do so, but its statement that it intends to hold the PC elections belies its claim that elections cannot be held this year due to the pandemic!

The SLPP would have held the LG polls, pandemic or no pandemic, if it had remained popular. Today, its popularity is at a very low ebb, and there have even been instances of irate members of the public hooting at government politicians. Farmers are protesting and threatening to march on Colombo unless fertiliser is made available. People waiting in winding queues to buy gas and other such essential commodities are heard cursing the government and vowing to ‘punish’ it come the next election. The SLPP is scared of facing angry voters. This is the truth the government cannot hide from the public.

What made the SLPP’s meteoric rise in national politics possible was its impressive victory at the 2018 LG elections. In 2017, the UNP, the SLFP, the JVP, the SLMC, the TNA, etc., succeeded in postponing the PC polls indefinitely by amending election laws in the most despicable manner, but there was no way they could put off the LG elections. The yahapalana government’s performance on all fronts had been below par, and the SLFP and the UNP knew they would have to take on each other in the run-up to an election at the expense of their fragile unity. What they feared came to pass, and the LG polls victory turned out to be a quantum leap forward for the SLPP. But, four years on, the LG elections would have marked the beginning of the end of the SLPP rule if they had been held on schedule.

The SLPP seems to think that it may be able to improve its performance by early next year to the extent of being able to face an electoral contest confidently, but chances are that it will find itself in a worse predicament, for it does not care to mend its ways. Its politicians, save a few, abuse power, ooze arrogance from every pore, make a public display of their cavalier attitude and indulge in corruption and a vulgar display of opulence. Its leaders are bent on bulldozing their way through, heedless of public opinion.

Polls postponements have had disastrous consequences in this country. The SLFP-led United Front government extended the life of Parliament by two years in 1975, and democracy suffered a heavy blow; the UNP obtained a five-sixths parliamentary majority at the 1977 general election and abused it to suppress democratic dissent and even postpone the general election in 1982 with the help of a heavily rigged referendum. If the scheduled parliamentary election had been held, public resentment would have found a vent, and the UNP would not have been able to retain its steamroller majority; above all, the JVP would not have been able to tap the massive pressure build-up in the polity to gain a boost for its second uprising. Similarly, the postponement of the PC polls in 2017 made the yahapalana administration even more unpopular and caused public anger to well up, making it possible for the SLPP to win subsequent elections and muster a two-thirds parliamentary majority, which was abused to introduce, among other things, the 20th Amendment, which is detrimental to democracy.

The prevailing air of despondency in the country cannot be attributed entirely to the pandemic and the resultant economic problems. It has come about because the arrogance of power has set in making rulers impervious to reason and public opinion. This is what too much power does to politicians. A similar situation prevailed during the latter stages of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, which was also intoxicated with power and did not care two hoots about public opinion. No wonder the current dispensation is heading for the rocks, and needs elections like a hole in the head.