A pauper’s choice
January 30, 2014 
“Today, only money talks. Intelligent people no longer come forward to contest elections. Women don’t contest. It’s only rich thugs who enter the fray” – Senior Minister D.E.W. Gunesekera, 31 August 2013.On 31 August 2013, with less than a month to go for the historic Northern Provincial Council election Senior Minister D.E.W. Gunesekera publicly made some prophetic statements. Hailing the Tamil National Alliance candidate list, the Communist Party Leader said Supreme Court judges and former Parliamentarians of vast experience had been chosen to represent the country’s main Tamil party at the election that has meant the most to its people since 1989. “When they win, and they build their cabinet, their conduct will be a lesson for all other Provincial Councils in the country,” Minister Gunesekera said, in a speech that garnered very little publicity at the time.
