Wednesday 7th May, 2025

Smearing opponents has become the dominant form of electioneering in Sri Lanka. All political parties unflinchingly resort to mud-slinging during election campaigns, and they are quite adept at making lies indistinguishable from the truth. They float various claims and counterclaims, and leave the public confused and unable to make informed decisions in elections.

One of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s close aides, Thusitha Halloluwa, created quite a stir on the eve of Tuesday’s local government polls. He levelled a very serious allegation against President Anura Kumara Dissanayake himself; Dissanayake had made a questionable investment in Greece while calling the Opposition politicians corrupt, he said.

The government let out a howl of protest, and lost no time in reporting Halloluwa to the CID, which amply demonstrated its selective efficiency once again by launching a prompt investigation into the NPP’s complaint. Halloluwa has been summoned to the CID. Having claimed that he has irrefutable evidence to support his claim, he will have to disclose it when he visits the CID today. Will the CID act in a similar manner if complaints are made against the government politicians that they have made statements derogatory of Opposition politicians?

Unsubstantiated allegations against key opposition figures formed a central pillar of the NPP’s election platform. Some NPP politicians claimed that the Rajapaksa family had stashed away billions of dollars in Uganda, and asked for a mandate to bring the stolen money back. Later, one of the NPP MPs who propagated that claim admitted that she had told the public a lie, and argued that anyone had a right to lie! The NPP carried out such propaganda attacks on its political rivals relentlessly, and the media gave them wide publicity, helping it turn public opinion in its favour. What if the Opposition politicians also make complaints to the CID that the NPP made false allegations against them?

Some NPP notables even made complaints to the CID about an alleged conspiracy to tarnish their reputation; they claimed that the Opposition was employing devious methods to have the public believe that they were falsely claiming academic titles. It is doubtful whether the CID has any time left for its regular duties and functions after it investigates government leaders’ complaints against their opponents.

Hardly a day passes without an underworld killing being reported. On Monday, a gunman killed a youth in what resembled a scene from a 1920s Chicago gangster film. CCTV footage shows the victim running away after being shot twice, in Mount Lavinia, and the gunman running after him and shooting him at close range on the Galle Road. These killings show how bold crime syndicates and their death squads have become of late. The police and the CID are apparently not up to the task of neutralising the nether world of narcotics and crime. So, it is hoped that the police will concentrate more on their operations against organised criminal gangs while investigating complaints from government politicians.

The police set up a special unit called the FCID (Financial Crimes Investigation Division) to probe allegations of corruption against the political opponents of the UNP-led Yahapalana government, which the JVP also backed. Given the sheer amount of political work the CID has to handle at present, it looks as if the police had to set up a special unit to probe complaints from the ruling party members so that the CID can devote more time to criminal investigations. That unit can be called the PCID (Political Complaints Investigation Division).

Some media rights groups have expressed serious concern about reports that the government is contemplating legal action against the media outfits that carried Halloluwa’s claim. One of the main reasons why the NPP succeeded in winning elections was wide media coverage of its unsubstantiated allegations against its rivals. So, the question is whether the NPP, which came to power, with the help of social media and a section of the mainstream media, has any moral right to institute legal action against the media for relaying unproven allegations.

Tuesday 6th May, 2025

Elections to 339 local government (LG) institutions are set to take place today––at long last. The terms of the local councils, which were last elected in 2018, lapsed in 2022, but the then SLPP government extended them by one year. In 2023, President Ranil Wickremesinghe derailed the LG polls by refusing to allocate funds. A legal battle resulted in the Supreme Court ordering, last year, that the LG elections be held soon.

As many as 75,589 candidates are vying for 8,287 seats in local councils; there are 4,877 wards in all LG institutions. Having campaigned really hard, the main political parties claim to be confident of victory, but many councils are likely to be hung.

The LG polls are held under the mixed proportional system—60% of the councillors are elected on the ward basis under the first-past-the-post system; others are elected under the Proportional Representation system. The new electoral system has led to a two-fold increase in the number of local council members.

Sri Lanka has too many politicians and state employees, as is public knowledge. It is popularly said in this country that ‘if one kicks a wayside bush at random, more than a dozen politicians and state employees will jump out’. The ratio of state employees to citizens is 1:15. There are 225 MPs, 455 provincial councillors, and about 8,287 local council members. There is no fixed number of LG members; the number tends to increase due to the new electoral system, which allows for overhang seats––the LG members elected on the ward basis from a political party or an independent group in excess of its entitlement under the PR system.

It does not make sense to maintain so many elected people’s representatives at the national, provincial and grassroots levels.

The National List (NL), which provides for the appointment of 29 MPs on the basis of political parties’ or independent groups’ shares of the nationwide votes in parliamentary polls, has been abused all these years to appoint defeated candidates and others to Parliament. Some NL appointments even undermine the Constitution; political parties craftily use Section 64 (5) of the Parliamentary Elections Act No 1 of 1981, as amended in 1988, to fill NL vacancies which are engineered, in most cases, to circumvent Article 99A of the Constitution; thus, the persons of party leaders’ choice are appointed to Parliament via the NL. This sordid practice has severely eroded public trust in the electoral process. Successive governments have not cared to amend the Parliamentary Elections Act and the Constitution to prevent defeated candidates and others from being appointed as NL MPs, and therefore the NL mechanism should be done away with.

The Provincial Council (PC) system has become a white elephant, but successive governments have considered it a fait accompli due to Indian pressure. All nine PCs have functioned without elected representatives since 2017! Even the JVP, which is currently in power, as the main constituent of the NPP coalition, has bitten the bullet and chosen to ensure the perpetuation of the PC system, which it went all out to sabotage, albeit in vain, by unleashing mindless terror and destroying lives, in the late 1980s. Serious thought should be given to reducing the number of PC members.

The number of LG members must also be reduced drastically. Many local council wards can be merged, especially in urban areas.

There have been campaigns for controlling the populations of crop-raiding wild animals, such as monkeys. Curiously, no such effort has ever been made to reduce the number of people’s elected representatives, who cause far worse damage to the economy than all crop-depredating wildlife combined. The same goes for the ever-burgeoning public service, which has become a metaphor for inefficiency.

As for today’s election, every vote counts. Happy voting!

Monday 5th May, 2025

The Election Commission (EC) has said that everything is ready for tomorrow’s local government (LG) polls. However, a trade union representing the Grama Niladharis (GNs), who play a crucial role in conducting elections, has complained that funds allocated for hiring generators to ensure an emergency power supply to counting centres, etc., are inadequate, and therefore those places may be left without back-up power systems tomorrow.

The GNs should not be held responsible if anything untoward happens in case of blackouts either due to technical defects or sabotage tomorrow, President of the United Grama Niladharis’ Association, Nanadana Ranasinghe, is reported to have said, demanding an explanation from the authorities concerned as to how such an emergency will be handled. He has asked whether they will use emergency lamps, candles or pandam (flambeaux) in the event of a power failure.

It is hoped that the government will not launch a witch-hunt against the GNs, and that the EC, etc., will act swiftly to solve the aforesaid problem. Nothing is so certain as power failures in this country, which experienced a countrywide power outage about three months ago.

We have witnessed numerous instances where governments led by the UNP and the SLFP resorted to barbaric violence and large-scale vote rigging to win elections; presidential polls in 1982 and 1988, under President J. R. Jayewardene’s watch, the 1989 parliamentary election under R. Premadasa’s presidency, and the 1999 North-Western Provincial Council election during President Chandrika Bandaranaike’s tenure stand out among them. The JVP has a history of trying to sabotage elections by unleashing mindless terror. In fact, it was the JVP’s terror campaign that enabled the then ruling UNP to stuff ballot boxes and win elections in 1988 and 1989.

Given Sri Lankan politicians’ tendency to manipulate elections, the possibility of governments resorting to electoral frauds to retain their hold on power in the future cannot be ruled out. Hence the pressing need for the EC to ensure that nothing is left to chance in its efforts to ensure free and fair elections.

One may recall that a power failure helped the UNP win a fiercely contested election in the early 1980s. President Jayewardene scrapped a general election which was due in 1982, for fear of losing his five-sixths majority in Parliament; he held a heavily-rigged referendum instead, undertaking to hold by-elections in the electorates where his government would lose. He had to hold 18 such by-elections in 1983; four of them were won by the Opposition in spite of large-scale rigging and violence unleashed by the UNP. Dinesh Gunawardena, Anil Moonesinghe, Richard Pathirana and Amarasiri Dodangoda won the Maharagama, Matugama, Akmeemana and Baddegama electorates, respectively. Violence and rigging enabled the UNP to win the other electorates, especially Mahara.

In Mahara, at the conclusion of the first round of counting, it became clear that SLFP candidate Vijaya Kumaratunga had won, but the UNP insisted on recounts, and then there occurred a blackout. When power was restored, UNP candidate Kamalawarna Jayakody had beaten Kumaratunga! The Opposition counting agents claimed that some election officials loyal to the UNP had literally swallowed dozens of votes polled by Vijaya, who had survived an attempt by the UNP to kill him in the run-up to the election.

Sri Lanka is no stranger to election malpractices although it has been free from them for some time. Anything is possible in high-stakes elections. It may be recalled that in 2020, the then US President Donald Trump claimed that his rivals had stolen America’s presidential election and engineered his defeat. So, a country like Sri Lanka has to take all possible precautions to ensure free and fair elections. Reliable back-up power systems must be available at all counting centres tomorrow.

History has a remarkable ability to repeat itself even after prolonged lapses; therein lies the rub. In a democracy, the integrity of elections must not be taken for granted. Constant vigilance is said to be the price of freedom.