31 July 2024 12:10 am Views - 501
Finally the date of our widely expected presidential election has been announced. Lankans will cast their vote to elect a new president on September 21 this year.
The result of the election will be crucial as the country is still to overcome the challenges of navigating its way out of an unprecedented economic crisis of 2022. Nor has it completely recovered from the mass protests which led to the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
As has been usual in our elections, there will be a plethora of candidates. Many of these worthies will be sponsored by the main political parties in the hope of splitting votes of their rivals.
The real fight however, will be between the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe the leader of the United National Party (UNP), who is presenting himself as an independent candidate with the aim of unifying the country, the candidates from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and National People’s Power (NPP/JVP). The SLPP has not named a candidate but carries a baggage of corruption.
A seasoned politician with over 40-years of experience, Wickremesinghe served as Minister under different premiers and has been prime minister on six occasions. He was appointed premier after the then leader of the Opposition refused to take on the mantle of premiership when offered in the wake of the resignation of then Premier Mahinda Rjapaksa.
After he was appointed premier, when President Gotabaya abdicated, Wickremesinghe was elected President by the members of Parliament as per constitutional requirements. Wickremesinghe was able to steady the economy and bring an end to the anarchy which threatened to engulf the country in the wake of the then president fleeing the country.
According to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund the country is on the road to financial stability.
Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) was deputy leader of the UNP. The party is ideologically no different from the UNP. The SJB was formed because of personal differences between the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sajith his deputy.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, better known as -AKD- is the leader of the National People’s Power (NPP) comprising the JVP, a few small political entities and trade and student unions. Dissanayake -then JVP- served as Cabinet Minister in the People’s Alliance government of 2004 to 2005.
Recently the party brought the education and health sectors to a standstill via strikes demanding unrealistically high wages despite the country’s inability to pay off national and international creditors.
The NPP claims it has not been a part of the government and therefore untouched by corrupt practices. The claim is not quite true as it was part of the People’s Alliance government.
The NPP is popular among the younger generation of voters. Voters of an earlier era however, remember it for the leadership it gave to two abortive, bloody uprisings in 1971 and 1987.
Since assuming office in July 2022, President Ranil Wickremesinghe introduced a variety of sweeping financial reforms including tax hikes and abolishing of subsidies.
These measures have led to sky-rocketing increases to the cost of living. At the same time, wages have been static in the state sector. In the mercantile sector salaries and perks have been cut. On the tea and rubber plantations workers are paid an average of Rs. 1,000 per day.
According to the Central Bank around 500,000 temporary workers lost their employment to Covid and the economic meltdown. Many remain jobless.
The cost for a family of four to have two square meals a day costs over a Rs. 100,000. Yet the average monthly wage in the formal sector is estimated to be between LKR 45,000 to Rs. 60,000.
Despite bankruptcy and malnutrition stalking the population, corruption in the state sector is rampant. No government has made any effort to curb the menace.
The fact that the main figures behind major financial scams remaining free to continue their crimes is proof something is very wrong in the country.
The question we the voters are faced with is, whether any of our prospective presidential candidates have the political will to tackle these problems. Or will they lead the country down the slippery slope to the chaos of 2022.