Whither Sri Lanka?
By Sandra Fernando -March 8, 2015
Sandra Fernando
So Sri Lanka has had a presidential election and a peaceful transition of power. To the folks all round the world who are gobsmacked, here’s a little news: we always have peaceful transitions of power. Go back over the history of our elections: when power has changed hands, it has always been done quietly. If Colombo doesn’t like the change of power, then we hear loud assertions of vote rigging. When Colombo likes the change of power, then we hear loud firecrackers. It’s just that the watering holes where Western journalists pick up their information are so full of Colombo. They should attach themselves to the packs of election monitors and get out into the country and see for real what’s really going on. Now there’s a revolutionary idea!
What about the run up to elections? Wasn’t there a lot of election violence in that process? Well, one of the election monitors says that we need to define the term “election violence” because, currently, everything can be complained about. Even neighbours disagreeing loudly over the wall is projected as election violence.
What about the bundle of ballot papers found somewhere after the elections? It was after the elections: who cares? But wasn’t it going to be used the wrong way? Well, the counting centres all have party representatives in them. If something unusual, extraordinary or downright unethical occurs, it is the privilege, nay the responsibility, of the party rep to query it, complain to the Returning Officers, tell the journalists and so on. There are 15 million voters in this country. A little over 12 million used their franchise in January. The Election Commissioner’s office would have had to arrange for one ballot sheet per voter regardless. So there are always ballot papers to be destroyed after an election. Someone could just get blank sheets, dump them somewhere so they can be found, be reported to the police and make it to the papers. If, as we say in Sri Lanka, they’re jobless, then they can fill out the papers as well. Then we have “election fraud” – if the party reps are that incompetent.Read More