The RDA’s Role In The Election Campaign

Some of the posters in the campaign that were pasted by the RDA

Picture and Text by Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema

The Road Development Authority (RDA) functioning under the Highways Ministry is being used for the President’s island wide poster campaign targeting the presidential election.
The total cost of the poster campaign has to therefore be borne by the RDA.
Documentary evidence has surfaced to prove that the RDA had been tasked to paste four sets of posters during four days in December and had been given a list of instructions to be followed as well.

JVP Matara District parliamentarian Premasiri Manage, raised the issue in parliament last week and accused the government of misusing public property and resources to carry out the election campaign of the President. He said the Presidential Secretariat had sent the instructions to all regional RDA offices.
Manage told The Sunday Leader that the main RDA office in each district had been asked to coordinate with electoral organizers to carry out the poster campaign. “The RDA had been asked to carry out the poster campaign in 15 districts using its vehicles, fuel and people,” he said.

A total number of 90,000 Sinhala and 33,500 Tamil posters had been distributed among the RDA offices in 15 districts. According to the instructions issued by the Presidential Secretariat, the RDA district offices in Ratnapura, Kegalle, Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Kandy, Hambantota, Galle, Matara, Badulla, Moneragala, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Vavuniya were issued with four sets of posters in Sinhala and Tamil that were to be pasted between December 6 and 9.

The RDA had also been instructed that each of its offices should paste posters in at least five cities in each electoral area in the respective districts. For example, in the Deniyaya electorate in the Matara District, the RDA office in the respective area has to paste posters in Deniyaya, Morawaka, Kotapola, Urubokka and Pasgoda towns.
In each town, the RDA has to ensure that at least 200 posters are pasted within the stipulated period in the campaign and after midnight on each day.
The first poster that was to be pasted on December 6 under the campaign was the one with the slogan “What do the children hope for?” The following day, the poster with the slogan, “What do the youth hope for?” had to be pasted. The final posters with the slogan “What is the hope of our nation?” were to be pasted on December 9.
The RDA employees pasting posters also had to ensure that none of the four sets of posters issued to them are pasted in an overlapping manner.
Highways Minister T.B. Ekanayake when questioned by Manage in parliament as to how the RDA carried out the President’s poster campaign and if the Highways Ministry had permitted such an action, Minister Ekanayake did not respond to it and ignored the question

However, Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has already called on all parties to abide by election laws and has said action would be taken against such violators.

Dissanayake has ordered that public property should not be used in campaigning while promotions, transfers and recruitment to all State institutions has also been stopped during the period of the election.