The Disputed Victory And The Call For Approval
It’s a pity that some who hail the so called victory of the President with different descriptions such as “a landslide”; “a triumph for national unity”; “sanity prevails”; “bold reply for betrayal”; “defeat for the second front” etc., have completely ignored the manner in which the election was conducted. In any democracy the people expect the government to conduct a free and fair election. And it is the duty and the responsibility of a democratic government to have the contest according to the laid down rules and regulations.
However, contrary to the expectations of the law abiding majority of Sri Lankans, the election was conducted in violation of all provisions enshrined in the Republican Constitution starting from non implementation of the 17th Amendment. The government also mischievously ignored Supreme Court orders and acted shamelessly against all rules and regulations and ethical norms applicable to the electronic and print media. It openly flouted the provisions of the Presidential Elections Act from the day of nominations right up to the announcement of results and even thereafter.
In the said process it also acted in contravention of many other laws of the country and brought about lot of pressure and undue influence on state officers including the police and security forces. It also engaged in killings, violence, intimidation and harassment of opponents and destruction of their property on a very large scale. And on the day of elections, the state electronic media went further to mislead the public on a grand scale in favour of its candidate.
In respect of the state media we all are aware as to how the Commissioner of Elections was compelled to intervene several times but was unable to curb its unlawful acts. We also know how the Mahanayake Theras were compelled to address the President regarding the illegal and unethical behaviour of the state media. But unfortunately none of those interventions could change the attitude of the state media or that of the government. Finally the statement made by the Commissioner of Elections with the announcement of the so called final result is ample evidence for some aspects of the many malpractices committed by the state on behalf of its candidate.
In addition to the mishandling of state media the volume of abuse and misuse of state authority and state resources by the government in favour of its candidate had been extremely high and unprecedented. Finally to woo the voters in the President’s favour the government resorted to the racial cry and started to whip up hatred towards the Tamil community. It is a shame on the government to stoop so low as to bring forth this issue once more disregarding the past which caused enormous destruction to the nation for nearly 30 years.
Even if we forget for a moment the computer fraud that the government is said to have committed to get a well designed final result, all violations and manipulation done from the day of nominations upto the final count are sufficient to challenge the result as they did have a great bearing on the final result.
In this background what is most needed is to take united action to create public opinion against all what had happened at the presidential election. Ironically, what we now see in some of the private print media are calls for unity and cooperation to meekly endorse this fraud, the magnitude of which was never seen before at an election in Sri Lanka. Undisputedly, this is the most corrupt election ever held in Sri Lanka and if not challenged vehemently nothing could prevent Sri Lanka from drifting towards an authoritative state like Burma, Iran and Libya. Furthermore, it will create a very bad precedent and will result in worse elections in the future including the next general election.
Disqualification of a winner for violating the rules of a contest is quite common and is essential for good governance. Sri Lanka too had been a beneficiary in this respect in the recent past when Susanthika who was awarded the Silver medal as the winner was disqualified for breaking Olympic rules.
A.C. Lakshman Hokandara
