UPFA M .P. Arundhika and gang wreak havoc in election districts - openly threaten , attack opposition voters
(Lanka-e-News-22.Sep.2013, 11.30PM) Arundhika Fernando M.P. had since election day morning (21) along with a gang of about 50 goons and hooligans wrought havoc brandishing guns , intimidating voters and threatening them with death if they step out from their places to cast their votes.

According to reports reaching Lanka e news , from early morning about 1.30 a.m. on the 21st, he had been with his marauding goons gone to every district forcibly entered the houses of voters going to cast votes for the opposition parties , warned them against their voting and vowed that they would be killed if they do so. They have also assaulted them. At one place they had made the UNP voters to kneel down and ruthlessly attacked them.
Arundhika with his underworld gang had also since this morning been going to every polling booth brandished weapons and threatened those who were going to vote for the opposition parties out.

Government M.P .Arundhika Fernando along with his violent gang had been committing serious election violence with impunity since early morning (21), whereby chances of holding a free and fair elections were completely disrupted and destroyed in Wayambe , Puttalam and Wennapuwa districts, according to reports .

Complaints had been lodged with the IGP , Elections Commissioner , and local and foreign monitors in this regard.
ILO commends Sri Lanka’s progress

Monday, 23 Sep 2013
Sri Lanka has made notable progress in fighting against child-labour, the Country Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Donglin Li, said.

Issuing a media release, Li stated that Sri Lanka has ratified ILO's Eight-Core conventions, including the minimum age convention and the worst forms of child labour conventions.

Furthermore, Sri Lanka has also determined a list of 51 forms of child labour, and has developed a Road Map to achieve zero tolerance for the worst forms of child labour by the year 2016.

He added, the country needs to keep up the momentum and make more concentrated efforts in the future to put a complete end to child labour in the country.

COURT FURTHER REMANDS STF OFFICERS OVER KILLING OF FIVE STUDENTS

September 23, 2013 The twelve police Special Task Force (STF) personnel, arrested over their alleged involvement in the killing of five students in Trincomalee in 2006, have been further remanded until October 7.

The suspects, an ASP and 11 Constables, were produced at the Trincomalee Magistrate Court today, Ada Derana reporter said.

They were arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on July 04 and produced before the Trincomalee Chief Magistrate U.L.M. Azhar, who ordered that they be held in remand custody at the Anuradhapura Prison.

The arrested Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) was an Inspector serving in the Trincomalee area when five students were shot and killed in the beach near the Trincomalee Naval Dockyard and Fort Fredrick on January 2, 2006.

Four of the students were vying for university entrance while the other had already been selected to the University of Moratuwa. 

The court will consider the suspects’ bail request on October 14.

RETIRED ARMY SOLDIER ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER

September 23, 2013 

A retired army soldier was arrested by police for attempting to murder a person with the use of a firearm, the Saliyawewa police stated.

The shooting had occurred last evening (September 22) at around 7.40pm in the Palugassegama area of Saliyawewa while a 35 year old was injured in the incident and was hospitalized.

The Saliyawewa police are conducting further inquiries regarding the incident which was reported to have been a personal disagreement between the two parties.

31 Years on Sabra-Shatila Massacre: Justice Delayed but Gaining Ground

Franklin Lamb-20-09-2013

Shatila camp, Beirut Each year, during the third week of September, Lebanon and this region, as well as international supporters, pause to reflect upon and commemorate the victims one of the twentieth century’s most horrific and cynical crimes perpetrated by a member state of the United Nations. The Sabra-Shatila massacre took place September 16-19th in Beirut, a well-documented 48 hours of slaughter that saw the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp surrounded and sealed off by the occupying Israeli army, whose intent was to block and force back inside the killing field anyone seeking to escape the predicted orgy of butchery (see Bayan al Hout, Sabra and Shatila September 1982, Pluto Press).

31 Years on Sabra-Shatila Massacre Justice Delayed but Gaining Ground by nelvely

Suicide attack on Pakistani church kills 81

A wing of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility

The Associated Press Posted: Sep 22, 2013 6:49 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 23, 2013 2:12 AM ET

A man cries at the death of his brother at the site of a suicide blast at a church in Peshawar on Sunday. Over 60 people were killed and 120 people wounded in the deadliest-ever attack on the country's Christian minority, officials said. (Fayaz Aziz/Reuters)

A Pakistan police official says the death toll from a church bombing has risen to 81 as angry Christians protested the deadliest attack ever in Pakistan against members of their faith.

Suicide Attack on Pakistani Church Kills 81 by nelvely

Welcoming The Verdict Of The Tamil People

By Kalana Senaratne -September 22, 2013

Kalana Senaratne

The TNA has swept the polls in the North. More importantly, the Tamil people have voted courageously, convincingly, and clearly. It was an expected outcome, but as President Rajapaksa took off to New York, he would have known that numbers and statistics on paper, more than just mind-made presumptions, can have a very coruscating impact, that the numbers in this case do not lie; not in the ‘South’, and never in the ‘North’.

The election to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) was not just a provincial election. It was that, and much more than that. It was almost like a referendum; not for a separate State, for the TNA Manifesto did not demand a separate Tamil Eelam State, in any explicit manner. But it was certainly a referendum of sorts, calling for the recognition of the right to self-determination of the Tamil people, for greater autonomy, for a re-structuring of the existing constitutional framework, and for accountability.

Lessons about the Conflict

The result in the North tells much about the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.

Firstly, it tells us that the problem here is not just a problem of discrimination, or about the need for a more Tamil-friendly government in the ‘South’, or the absence of economic development. It is also not so much about the need to devolve a few powers to the periphery so that the people in those areas could benefit from them; a theory which was in any case rubbished when a Colombo-based Mr. CV Wigneswaran was nominated as TNA’s Chief Ministerial candidate. This is not a conflict that can be resolved only by enacting a new bill of rights, or by establishing more independent institutions.

Rather, the problem is more about nationalism and nationhood, about the Tamil people’s aspirations, about their need to be recognized as an equal nationality on the basis of equality and self-determination. It is a question that has to do with a deeply polarized polity, or deeply polarized polities. In broader terms, it is a question about how peoples with contrasting views about their nationhood, about their histories, can still co-exist peacefully.

Read More

TNA wins the northern PC

[ Sunday, 22 September 2013, 02:17.23 AM GMT +05:30 ]

The Tamil National Alliance has won the northern provincial council election as it bagged 30 seats out of 38, official results show. ProvincialCouncil Elections 2013

The party swept all the five districts. Two more seats go to the largest single party under a system of proportional representation and the TNA took the both, bringing the number of seats to 38. President Mahinda Rajapakse's United People's Freedom Alliance was a distant second with just seven seats, while Sri Lanka Muslim Congress bagged only one seat. Jaffna district ITAK -213,907 votes – 14 seats UPFA - 35,995 votes- 2 seats Kilinochchi district ITAK - 37,079 votes – 3 seats UPFA - 7,897 votes – 1 seat Mannar district ITAK - 33,118 votes – 3 seats UPFA - 15,104 votes – 1 seat SLMC - 4,571 votes – 1 seat Vavuniya district ITAK - 41,225 votes – 4 seats UPFA - 16,633 votes – 2 seats Mullativu district ITAK - 28,266 votes – 4 seats UPFA- 7,209 votes -1 seat

தமிழ் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்புக்கு மாபெரும் வெற்றி!

முதன்மை வேட்பாளர் விக்கினேஸ்வரன் விருப்புவாக்குகளில் முதலிடம் 
ProvincialCouncil Elections 2013
22 செப்ரெம்பர் 2013, ஞாயிறு 5:25 பி.ப

வடக்குமாகாண சபைத் தேர்தலில் யாழ்.மாவட்டத்தில் விருப்பு வாக்குகளின் எண்ணிக்கையில் தமிழ் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பின் முதன்மை வேட்பாளர் சி.வி.விக்னேஸ்வரன்  1 லட்சத்து 32,255 அதிகூடிய விருப்பு வாக்குகளைப் பெற்றுள்ளார்.அடுத்து அனந்தி சசிதரன் 87,870 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் தர்மலிங்கம் சித்தார்த்தன் 39,715 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் பெற்று அதிகூடிய வாக்குகளைப் பெற்றவர் வரிசையில் முன்னிற்கின்றனர்.

தொடர்ச்சியாக பாலச்சந்திரன் கஜதீபன் 29,669 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் இ.ஆர்னோல்ட் 26,888 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் கந்தையா சிவஞானம் 26,747 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் எம்.கே.சிவாஜிலிங்கம் 22,660 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் ஐங்கரநேசன் பொன்னுத்துரை 22,268 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் எஸ்.சுகிர்தன் 20,541 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் கே.சயந்தன் 20,179 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும்  விந்தன் கனகரத்தினம் 16,463  விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் ஏ.பரம்சோதி 16,359 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் கந்தையா சர்வேஸ்வரன் 14,761 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் வி.சிவநேசன் 13,479 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும் பெற்றுள்ளனர்.

இதேவேளை, ஜ.ம.சு.கூட்டமைப்பு சார்பாக ஈழமக்கள் ஜனநாயக கட்சியின் வேட்பாளர் கமலலேந்திரன் 13,632 விருப்பு வாக்குகளையும், அங்கஜன் இராமநாதன் 10,034 வாக்குகளையும் பெற்றுள்ளனர்.

யாழ். மாவட்டத்தில் இருந்து வட மாகாண சபைக்கு தெரிவு செய்யப்பட்டவர்களின் விருப்பு வாக்குகள் மாவட்ட செயலகத்தில் இன்று மாலை யாழ்.மத்திய கல்லூரியில் அறிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளமை குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

UPFA wins NWP and CP

[ Sunday, 22 September 2013, 06:02.47 AM GMT +05:30 ]

The UPFA secured a convincing victory in the North Western and Central Provincial Council elections obtaining 34 seats in the NWP and 36 seats in the CP.

The Northern Provincial Council election was won by the ITAK which secured 30 seats and the UPFA seven seats. ProvincialCouncil Elections 2013 North Western Province Central Province

The Way Forward For The TNA For Peaceful Resolution Of The Political Problems Of Tamils

By R.M.B Senanayake -September 22, 2013

R.M.B. Senanayake

There was a storm created during the election campaign by theTNA Manifesto which referred to their demand for federalism. This was interpreted or misinterpreted to the Sinhalese masses as a revival of the demand for a separate State. Such interpretation no doubt was useful to mobilize the support of the Sinhalese voters in the NWP and the CP elections. The TNA denied that they wanted a separate state.

But even a sober politician like the National Languages and Social Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara, who earlier forged an alliance along with other leftist members in the government to oppose any move to amend the 13th Amendment has said that the TNA’s election manifesto was an attempt to divide the country. He has also added that the Northern Provincial Council would be assigned the same powers as the other provincial councils and would not be given any powers that have not been vested with the other councils. So the TNA has to take note of these fears among the Sinhalese. Whether the demand for self determination in the form of federalism can be outlawed is now before the Supreme Court.

But the 13th Amendment is not federalism. The best option for the TNA is to put this demand on the back burner and instead seek to make the Provincial Council work. Otherwise it would expose itself to the charge that it wrecked any chance of working together under the 13th Amendment. There are several gaps and overlaps in the division of powers in the Law which requires patience and understanding to iron out.  The Government should show understanding and allow the TNA to run an administration exercising the powers devolved. The TNA should cultivate the goodwill and understanding of the President and make a genuine attempt to make the Provincial Council work. So the first step is to build a dialogue with the President to resolve the administrative obstacles and bottlenecks rather than to demand expansion of the powers and functions of the PC. The Governor is the President’s representative and despite the bad relationship with the present holder of the post the TNA must display maturity and repair the estranged relationship.

It is good that Justice Wigneswaran will be the Chief Minister. The TNA will have to separate the functioning of the PC from its political        Read More

Tamil National Alliance wins landslide victory in first local elections since civil war

PHOTO: Voter turnout was reported to be around 68 per cent.(AFP: Laruwan Wanniarachchi)

By South Asia correspondent Michael Edwards -Sun 22 Sep 2013

Sri Lanka's main Tamil party has won the first local election to be held in the country's north in the wake of decades of civil war.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has secured 30 seats in the 38-member Northern Provincial Council.

A coalition of parties representing president Mahinda Rajapaksa won seven seats, while a Muslim party won one.

The vote comes four years after the army defeated Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's civil war.

Defeat for the government, the most humiliating set-back for Mr Rajapaksa since he assumed office in 2005, is largely symbolic.

He has a majority of more than two-thirds in the national parliament and controls the eight other provinces.

But the TNA's victory shows the defeat of the rebels in 2009 did nothing to dampen calls for autonomy among Tamils, who make up about 14 per cent of Sri Lanka's 20 million people.

Dr Sam Pari from the Australian Tamil Congress says the result sends a very clear message that Tamil people do not see any viable solution being put forward for regime change.

"Stakeholders in Tamil affairs in the international community, the diaspora and in the island of Sri Lanka should realise the Tamil people have yet again proved that they are still supportive of self-rule and self-determination".

The TNA won more than 84 per cent of the votes in Jaffna, once the heartland of the rebel movement, 81 per cent in Kilinochchi, the de-facto capital of the separatists, and 78 per cent in Mullaitivu, where thousands of civilians were said to have been killed in May 2009 when government forces moved in to defeat the rebels.

"It's a great vindication of the political stand we've taken and our people have stood up without bowing down to violence and intimidation," MA Sumanthiran, a TNA legislator, told the Reuters news agency.

"Now the president has to bow down to this verdict."

A foreign observer said the election commission had done a very good job inside the polling centres, though it did not have any control over what went on outside, where some voters reported attacks and intimidation.

Complaints of intimidation of voters

The government has accused the TNA of renewing calls for a separate state through its push for the devolution of power. The TNA says it wants devolution in a united Sri Lanka, not a separate state.

Many voters have called for the return of land that they say the army has occupied. The are also calling for the withdrawal from the north of the army, which was accused of human rights abuses in the final stages of the war.

Some voters have also called for a separate state, for decades the goal of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who launched their war in 1983 to end what Tamil activists saw as systematic discrimination by Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority.

Election officials said they received "plenty" of complaints, including complaints of intimidation of voters during the polling, but turnout was about 68 per cent.

The military has rejected any suggestion of involvement by the security forces in election-related violence of any sort.

The president has faced international pressure to bring to book those accused of war crimes committed at the end of the war and to boost reconciliation efforts.

His government has rejected accusations of rights abuses and Mr Rajapaksa in July ordered an inquiry into mass disappearances, mostly of Tamils, at the end of the war.

ABC/Reuters

Video: Al Jazeera Blocked: Inside Story – Sri Lanka’s Vote A New Chapter?

September 22, 2013

The cable news provider Dialog TV has blocked the Doha based Al Jazeera news network to prevent the channels reports on Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council elections reaching local audiences.

Northern Province: The election rundown

22 SEPTEMBER 2013 AT 11:19 LK TIME.

The Tamil National Alliance recorded a massive victory in the Northern Provincial Council polls, securing more than of the total votes cast and securing 30 seats at the Council.

United People’s Freedom Alliance led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa came a distant second, securing seven seats at the assembly. The Sri Lanka Muslim congress obtained one seat from the Mannar district.

“This is a display of the resilince of the people,” said TNA parliamentarian Mathiaparanam Sumanthiran talking to The Republic Square. He added that the people of the North have spoken, and despite reservations about the Provincial Council system that the people have reaffirmed the mandate of the TNA in furthering the interests of the Tamil people.

Post-election violence reports from the Province remained staggered, in contrast to the pre-election incidents of intimidation that were reported earlier.

Ananthy Sasitharan, a key candidate of the TNA was attacked during the run up to the polls, and the party blamed the military for the incident. The North has a large military presence, a leftover from the war that was fought in the region till four years ago. United States expressed concern on the attack, and called for all parties to refrain from violence.

Turnout in the area was high, with initial forecasts recording Jaffna at 63%, Kilinochchi 70%, Mannar, 70%, Vavuniya 65% Mullaithivu – which saw the most violent fighting during the final phases of the war – recording 71%. Results showed polling rates close to 75% throughout the region.

Meanwhile reports said that Qatar-based news television channel Al-Jazeera was blocked on election day in Sri Lanka by the content providers Dialog TV and Sri Lanka Telecom following instructions by the government. In a report aired prior to the polls, Al-Jazeera was perceived as being critical of the government.

Elections Commissioner badged the polls “free and fair,” despite a few incidents of violence that occured mainly in the Northern and Central Provinces. Several people, including an election monitor, was hospitalised on polling day due to violence, but no deaths were reported. Voters in some areas of the North were reportedly told by military intelligence officers not to vote for the TNA. Two groups reportedly clashed in Vavuniya following the release of polling results.

U.S. Embassy Statement on Provincial Elections

September 22, 2013

• Read in Sinhala
• Read in Tamil

We congratulate the people of Sri Lanka on their historic Provincial Council elections on September 21.  The high turn-out and participation in all three of the provinces holding elections is a victory for the democratic process.

We remain concerned about reports of elections violence, however, and urge a transparent and independent investigation into the various attacks and that the perpetrators be brought to justice swiftly.  Particularly troubling have been reports of involvement by uniformed individuals in these acts.

A process free of violence and intimidation in the Northern Province is required for greater civilian administration and to help further the reconciliation process four years after the war.  These elections provided a starting point for that process.  Democracy is not simply about elections, however, and more must be done to ensure that Sri Lankans of all communities can live in the peace and dignity that they deserve.

Sri Lanka’s war-hit ethnic Tamils vote resoundingly for wider autonomy in provincial elections

By Associated Press, Published: September 21 | Updated: Sunday, September 22, 9:01 AM

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s main ethnic Tamil party earned a convincing victory in the country’s northern provincial elections, according to results released Sunday, in what is seen as a resounding call for wider regional autonomy in areas ravaged by a quarter century of civil war.

(Eranga Jayawardena/ Associated Press ) - A Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil woman rocks her child at her neighborhood a day after the northern provincial council election in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013. A former political proxy for Sri Lanka’s defeated Tamil Tiger rebels swept the country’s northern provincial election, according to results released Sunday, in what is seen as a resounding call for wider regional autonomy in areas ravaged by a quarter century of civil war.

The Tamil National Alliance will form the first functioning provincial government in the northern Tamil heartland after securing 30 out of 38 seats in Saturday’s polls, Sri Lanka’s elections commission said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s coalition won the rest of the 

The win provides a platform for the TNA to campaign for an autonomous federal state, although the provincial council is largely a toothless body.

The Tamils have fought unsuccessfully for self-rule for six decades, at first through a peaceful struggle and then the bloody civil war.

The elections were seen by the international community as a test of reconciliation between the Tamils and the majority ethnic Sinhalese, who control Sri Lanka’s government and military.

“We asked the people (for votes), and the people have given. Now it’s our turn to reciprocate,” said the chief minister-elect of Northern Province, retired Supreme Court Justice C.V. Wigneswaran.

“The government has to learn from our victory,” he said. “The people have spoken democratically ... the people have shown in no uncertain terms what their aspirations are. So I am sure the government will take stock of the matter and help us to make democracy work in the Northern Provincial Council.”

The campaigning period and election day were marked by sporadic attacks and threats against TNA supporters, including some allegedly by uniformed army soldiers.

The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that the involvement of uniformed individuals in election violence was “particularly alarming,” adding that a process free of violence and intimidation is needed to further post-war reconciliation.

Rajapaksa called the elections after much international criticism that he delayed fulfilling wartime promises to share power with the minority Tamils. The largely successful conduct of the election could deflect some pressure off the government ahead of a Commonwealth country leaders’ meeting in November in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital.

The government has rejected international calls that it has not thoroughly investigated alleged war crimes committed by its troops at the end of the war, when, according to a U.N. report, they may have killed 40,000 Tamil civilians. The Tamil Tiger rebels have also been accused of widespread war crimes, including the forced recruiting of child soldiers.

The election results also suggest that a vast majority of voters prefer self-rule over Rajapaksa’s effort to win them over through infrastructure development.

The provincial council, however, is mostly powerless and will have to contend with a governor appointed by the central government who will control most of the council’s affairs, which could cause rifts.

But the two-thirds majority on the provincial council means Wigneswaran can follow through with his threat to call for a no-confidence vote against the governor.

Wigneswaran’s sister asked not to vote for TNA

Sunday, 22 Sep 2013

A group of men, who had visited the residence of the sister of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) chief ministerial candidate, C.V. Wigneswaran, without being aware of her family connections, had cautioned her against voting for the TNA and Wigneswaran.

A letter sent by Wigneswaran to Commissioner of Elections, Mahinda Deshapriya, stated that his own sister had been advised not to vote for the TNA by a group of men.

The letter stated, “A group of men went to my sister’s house at Aanakottai in Jaffna and told her that they are visiting ‘decent families’ and advising them to refrain from voting for Wigneswaran and the TNA.

Wigneswaran requested the Election Commissioner investigate the matter. (SRM)

A toxic brew of election fury promising disunity

Sunday, September 22, 2013

As Saturday the 21st of September 2013 draws to a close, marking the first provincial council election held in Sri Lanka’s Northern region for decades, there is a certain terrible inevitability as to where the metaphorical (so far) lines of battle are drawn between this Government and its most determined detractors.

Driven to their backs against the wall

Unmistakably defined by the hardline majoritarian policies of the Rajapaksa administration which has left little room for compromise during the past few years, the political rhetoric of minority parties has grown increasingly defensive in turn, reflecting their grave apprehensions as racial and religious minorities in post-war Sri Lanka.

During the last month, campaigns around the provincial council elections only revealed an unhappy intensification of these positions. While such stridency on the part of this government is only to be expected, it is unfortunate that Tamil parties such as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) appear to have taken battle positions as it were, on a pronounced hardening of the rhetoric.

From one perspective, this may be understandable as Tamil citizens are driven with their backs against the wall, their places of religious worship being defaced, their very language and culture being subordinated and their lands being occupied on the flimsiest of pretexts in the North, ostensibly for public purposes but later used to expand the burgeoning hotel industry with fat commissions being paid to those at the highest levels of the political hierarchy. Yet as to whether this decidedly provocative rhetoric is exactly wise or strategic in the prevalent political environment is a different question altogether. 

The silencing of moderate voices

For in a way, the continuation of such divisive debates is what this Government actually wants in terms of its own priorities for its long term survival. Its greatest problem would be the assimilation and identification of common majority and minority grievances ranging from land disputes and the dispossessed to the inability of the law to safeguard basic life and liberty rights, whether in Chunnakam or Weliweriya. During a week which saw Sri Lanka’s 43rd Chief Justice being put literally into the dock on a trumped up case of bribery by a Bribery and Corruption Commission which has deprived itself of all credibility, such a focus in the run-up to the provincial polls in the North may have had interesting possibilities. This was however, not the case. 

The more pronounced divisions there are on ethnic lines, the more fearfulness that is created among religious and racial lines and the more that national parties appear to tread the line of the radical Tamil disapora characterized by its reluctance to condemn the excesses of the late leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the happier the Government hawks would undoubtedly be. This divisiveness forms a toxic brew which keeps the moderates marginalized and silences otherwise disgruntled voices who fear, (irrationally maybe), the ghost of the Wanni Sun God rising from the ashes, to mix one’s metaphors, unforgivably perhaps but quite irresistibly.

It is hoped that with the heat of the election campaign over, a more nuanced strategy would drive approaches adopted by the minority parties, which would have as its centre point, the identification of a common strategy at opposing this Government with the Rule of Law at its centre. 

The Election Commissioner must talk less and perform more

Meanwhile elections in the Central and North Western provinces have, in the absence of an effective and dynamic opposition, predictable outcomes dominated by intra-party fighting. This week, we saw Sri Lanka’s Elections Commissioner engaging in amusing theatrics before national television while promising to uphold the integrity of the electoral process. The precedent of his predecessor breaking down in tears in lamenting his inability to prevent political pressures exerted on him by this government is indelibly imprinted on our minds. 

Yet even within this most unpromising process and in the absence of an independent Elections Commission, the incumbent Elections Commissioner may well be advised to use Article 103(2) of Sri Lanka’s Constitution, left intact by the obnoxious 18th Amendment, to the fullest extent possible. Similar provisions have been used to good effect by India’s abrasive Elections Commission. Even in the vastly weaker electoral process that prevails here, this constitutional provision may surely be utilized more effectively. Moreover sanctimonious announcements by polls candidates, most of whom may be better adorning a rogues gallery, that they have declared their assets are little reassurance. It is up to the Elections Commissioner to ascertain the actual truth of these so-called declarations, even if the law can do little in punishing political rogues given state patronage.

Historic but disillusioning polls

In conclusion, these elections may be heralded as historic for its holding of polls in the North. True enough, the sight of formerly war affected villagers trudging determinedly to cast their vote at polling stations is an uplifting sight. Not so long ago, as may be remembered, the LTTE’s ban on citizens of the North casting their vote was enforced so barbarically that a man who defied that order had his hand cut off. Yet nonetheless, bereft of a proper Rule of Law framework and dominated by divisive campaign propaganda, these polls promise to heighten disunity, regardless of whatever outcome.

One is forcefully reminded thereto of the frenzied rat on the proverbial wheel, going round and round but to little avail until the inevitable end comes. As ultra-nationalist positions on both sides of the Sri Lanka’s ethnic divide harden, that essential middle ground is lost to the detriment of the country as a whole. This seems to be the sad fate of this country, illustrating time and time again that the lessons of history are never quite learnt in all their grim foreboding.