No Vote For Weerawansa

By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema

The recent spate of elections – the presidential and general elections – has revealed that former Marxist ‘revolutionary’ and self proclaimed patriot, Wimal Weerawansa does not have a vote either in his constituency, the Colombo District or in any other part of the island.

National Freedom Front (NFF) Leader Weerawansa was however one of the first governing party members to publicly criticise defeated presidential candidate, Retired General Sarath Fonseka on the day of the presidential election in January this year for not being a registered voter in Sri Lanka. He even challenged General Fonseka’s right to contest the presidential election since he did not have a vote.

Interestingly, Weerawansa himself had not cast a vote at the presidential election. The reason being the non inclusion of his name in the voter register for 2008.

The Sunday Leader is in possession of copies of the 2007 electoral list of the Grama Seva Division 476/B-Malabe North in Kaduwela and the 2008 list of the same division.

Weerawansa’s name is recorded only in the 2007 electoral list. In the list Weerawansa bearing ID number 700670805V is listed under number 163/06/1.

His wife Ranasinghe Randunu Mudiyanselage Shiraji Udayanthai and Tennekoon Vitharanage Nath Yasalal Tennekoon have also been registered under the same number.

However, in the 2008 electoral list, neither Weerawansa’s nor his wife’s or the other individual Tennekoon’s name have been included in it.

Therefore, the last election Weerawansa had exercised his franchise was at the Western Provincial Council election in 2009 when the 2007 electoral list was used for voting.

In fact, he has even lost the opportunity to cast a vote in favour of himself at Thursday’s General Election as his name was not included in the 2008 electoral list.

The Grama Sevaka for Malabe, confirmed to The Sunday Leader that Weerawansa’s name was not included in the 2008 electoral list, as he had shifted from the residence he was staying in Kaduwela.
Following his defection from the JVP, Weerawansa had to move out of his residence, 163/6/1, Vimukthi Mawatha, Pittugala, Malabe.

According to the Grama Sevaka, when the 2008 electoral registration form was taken to Weerawansa’s residence in mid 2008, he had vacated the premises earlier that year and it had been converted to a hostel for university students.

“Since he was no longer in the area, he could not fill the form and his name was not included in the 2008 voter registry,” the Grama Sevaka said.

However, in mid 2009 Weerawansa had requested a letter from the Grama Sevaka claiming he was no longer a resident at the Vimukthi Mawatha address in order to get himself registered at a new location.

The Grama Sevaka’s statement indicates that Weerawansa was well aware of his inability to exercise his franchise at the 2010 President and General Elections, as early as mid 2009.

Yet, he remained silent. But in a typical case of the pot calling the kettle black indulged himself in a name calling, vituperative and ugly show on national television no less belittling General Fonseka on January 26th this year when it emerged that his name was not included in the 2008 electoral registry and so he was deprived of a vote at the presidential election.

Weerawansa — hypocritical and duplicitous to the core – took high moral ground despite the fact that he himself did not have a vote — loudly espousing the cause of patriotism and damning the General. He questioned the rights of a politician to contest an election and ask for votes from the people, when the General did not possess a vote in the country, knowing all along that he himself did not have a vote.

Weerawansa’s duplicity, lack of integrity and above all his cheating ways, even during his time in the JVP, have been revealed in earlier editions of The Sunday Leader.

While in the JVP, Weerawansa like his other comrades, claimed to represent the poor masses and declared to serve the people voluntarily without drawing salaries allocated for legislators.

However, the deeds that he tried hard to cover while being a JVPer, gradually started to emerge after his defection. It did not take long before the luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by the Weerawansa duo (husband and wife) came into the limelight.

While Weerawansa played the role of the Marxist revolutionary, his wife turned businesswoman – was busy negotiating and bargaining in deals that brought the couple hard cash.

Weerawansa’s wife, R.R.M.S. Udayanthi Ranasinghe also known as Shirsha Udayanthi and Shashi Weerawansa, on April 23, 2009 signed an agreement with the Board of Investment in Sri Lanka (BoI) to set up/conduct and operate a project to export waste fabrics. The company launched is Randunu Fabrics Private Limited (PV 67321), a limited liability company.

The Weerawansas are also building a three-storey house at Mangala Mawatha, off Ramanayake Mawatha in Hokandara South.

The Kaduwela Pradeshiya Sabha has approved Shashi’s house plan, which is 4,865 square feet in floor extent. After making the necessary payments for inspection on June 2, 2009, the plan was approved by the Pradeshiya Sabha on July 22, 2009.

However, the real floor extent of the house, as reported in the media, is 6,770 square feet.

Rough estimates by building contractors have revealed that the construction of the house would cost close to Rs. 30 million, inclusive of all finishing touches. The contractors have pointed out that the usual cost for a square foot in a house similar to the one being built by Shashi Weerawansa would be approximately Rs. 6,000.
Therefore, if the real floor extent of the house is 6,770 square feet, the cost of construction of the house would be close to Rs. 40 million.  Perhaps Wimal Weerawansa would like to get on national television and enlighten us all on how he amassed a stupendous Rs. 40 million for the purpose of building himself a spanking new home.

The amount spent on construction would be in addition to the money spent on purchasing the land. The approximate extent of the land is believed to be 30 perches and given the rough estimate of Rs. 250,000 for a perch in Mangala Mawatha, Hokandara South, the cost of the land would be approximately Rs. 7.5 million. The monies to purchase the land and build a 40 million rupee house surely could not have been through collecting Wimal’s salary as a parliamentarian since his defection from the JVP.  Weerawansa earns an estimated Rs. 50,000 per month as an MP.

Responding to a question during a live television discussion on one of the state owned channels recently; Wimal had reportedly said that his wife was building a house with money collected by her through several business ventures and after selling a plot of land that belonged to her in Mawaramandiya. (The Sunday Leader several years back exposed the story on how Shashi acquired the Mawaramandiya land – another conquest through devious means!)