Mister Deshapriya you must do or die

2 January 2015 06:33 pm Views - 2949

As the campaign for the crucial January 8 presidential election enters its final stretch a disturbing feature is the extent to which election laws are being violated or blatantly abused, mainly by ruling party politicians, heads of state, departments and corporations.

One of the main independent election monitoring groups, the People’s Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) said yesterday  it had received as many as 612 complaints of violations of election laws. PAFFREL’s Executive Director, Rohana Hettiarachchi said 85 per cent of the complaints came with substantial evidence. He said members of both the ruling alliance and the common Opposition front were flouting election laws.

Another monitoring group the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) issued an even more disturbing report.  Its media unit said that a staggering 1029 complaints had been received up to 6 am yesterday. CaFFE’s Media Unit said 105 of the complaints were of election related violence while 924 related to violations of election laws. The group has given full details of the violence and violations raising questions as to whether the campaign is free and fair or whether the people’s right to make an informed choice is being spin-doctored by sophisticated bribery or corruption and marred by violence or threats of violence.

The widely held belief that people are losing confidence in the independence of the police service is perhaps reflected in the number of complaints made to it. Police Media Spokesman Ajith Rohana—often accused by opposition critics of being more of a government spokesman—said the police had received 214 complaints up to yesterday. He said 92 people were arrested on charges of flouting election laws but as usual they had been released on bail after being produced in court.

During the past few weeks independent TV networks specially have been screening widely watched talk shows where government and opposition representatives present their cases. More so this presidential election has created unprecedented interest and become the talking point at almost every get-together.

In the United States, where democracy is vibrant despite the geopolitical agendas of the administration, the main candidates for the presidential election hold at least three television debates which are watched by millions of people all over the world. Analysts believe that the key turning points in some of the presidential elections were the TV debates.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), playing an active role in the ongoing election campaign has called for a public TV and radio debate between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Opposition’s common candidate Maithripala Sirisena. BASL president Upul Jayasuriya said that Mr. Sirisena had agreed to take part in this debate but Mr. Rajapaksa had not yet agreed to it. Mr. Jayasuriya said that the BASL hoped that if Mr. Rajapaksa was unable to come for the debate he would at least take part via the phone, Skype or even satellite.

Mr. Sirisena told the diplomatic community on the New Year’s day he would take effective action to stop the abuse of the state media for crude and blatant propaganda of the ruling party. Independent analysts say one of the steps should be tough legal action against the state media institutions heads who not only allow but encouraged such blatant propaganda which is a serious violation of election laws because public money and, public officials were being used for partisan party propaganda. For generations the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has been respected for its independent views and reports. But now the Central Bank also has been politicised and is playing a role in the election campaign, as are other state banks, government departments and state corporations. This scandalous party political abuse of the public service needs to be stopped immediately as part of the new era.

As for the election violence and violation of laws we hope Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya will take tough action in these last vital days, because as one public servant lamented recently the voting right is the only right they are left with now.