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In the last two weeks, opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian Harin Fernando has constantly been in the news. It is very likely that he will continue to do so, as he takes on a formidable challenge, running for Chief Minister in the Uva Province.

The task facing Fernando is a gigantic one. Not only is he running for office with a handicap because he will be contesting from the UNP which has lost all major national, provincial and local elections over the past ten years, he will also be running against former Chief Minister Shashindra Rajapaksa.
Rajapaksa is the son of Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and the nephew of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He is the only politician in the first family operating at the provincial level and it is expected that the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) will go all out to defeat Fernando.

"Fernando’s critics have claimed that the incident was a stunt to gain  publicity on the eve of the provincial elections which he would be  contesting."

Fernando has already upped the ante. In a live television talk show two weeks ago, he was involved in an altercation with Wayamba Chief Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera. In that incident, Jayasekera reportedly assaulted Fernando after losing his temper after repeated verbal taunts from Fernando.    
Jayasekera left the UNP only months ago to contest the Wayamba provincial polls from the UPFA. In the UNP, he and Fernando were harsh critics of the government. His crossing over to the UPFA has changed all that and the talk show incident earned Fernando wide publicity, if not notoriety.

Fernando’s critics have claimed that the incident was a stunt to gain publicity on the eve of the provincial elections which he would be contesting. Others have condemned his behaviour prior to the assault saying he repeatedly used unparliamentary language on Jayasekera.
Fernando had his share of exposure in the media following the incident. He has followed it up further with an announcement that he would resign from Parliament in the first week of August enabling him to contest the Uva elections in September.

Fernando was again in the news this week when he petitioned the Supreme Court, filing a fundamental rights application against the Commissioner of Elections. Fernando was complaining against the redistribution of seats in the Uva Provincial Council for the forthcoming election.
The Department of Elections had decided to reduce three seats from the Badulla district and add them to the Moneragala district. Accordingly, the number of seats in Badulla reduces to 18 while Moneragala will now have 14 seats. This leaves Badulla with a larger population per provincial councillor.

Fernando and the UNP believe the change is politically motivated. It has been noted that the Badulla district has larger proportions of ethnic minorities which are likely to vote against the ruling party while the Moneragala district is predominantly Sinhalese and is expected to vote with the UPFA.
Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya however has been strident in his defence of the decision to change the seat allocation. The division of the 32 seats allocated to the Uva Provincial Council has been undertaken only on the basis of the 2013 census, Deshapriya has argued. “No one has told me how I should allocate the seats. It was done by me and the officers in my department without any outside influence” Deshapriya has said. The allocation was done according to the 2004 Provincial Councils Elections Amendment Act, Deshapriya has explained.

Fernando though is likely to relish the opportunity to have his plea heard by the country’s highest court. It will be yet another challenge for the young parliamentarian who took to national politics only four years ago, entering Parliament at the 2010 general elections.Harin Fernando, educated at St. Joseph’s College and a businessman before he took to politics, entered the political arena eight years ago at the age of twenty seven when he was appointed as the UNP’s organiser for Badulla when the party was recovering from the 2004 election defeats.

"As an opposition MP, Fernando has acquired a reputation for being  outspoken and not being overawed by the might of the majority enjoyed by  the UPFA in Parliament. He is among the next generation of UNP leaders  expected to rally the party in the face of successive election defeats"

Three years later, in 2009, he was contesting the Uva provincial council elections. It was the first poll to be held after the war against terrorism was concluded and resulted in a massive victory for the UPFA. The UNP fared extremely poorly, polling a paltry 26 per cent of the vote and returning only five provincial councillors but Fernando topped the list of preferences, polling 37,000 votes. However, his tenure in the provincial council was short lived as he contested the general elections the following year.

Contesting from the Badulla district and polling 49,000 preference votes, Fernando was one of only two members elected from the UNP, again comfortably topping the list of preferences. The other was seasoned politician Luxman Seneviratne who later crossed over to the UPFA and is now a minister.
As an opposition MP, Fernando has acquired a reputation for being outspoken and not being overawed by the might of the majority enjoyed by the UPFA in Parliament. He is among the next generation of UNP leaders expected to rally the party in the face of successive election defeats.     

Before the events of a few weeks ago, Fernando has occasionally been in the limelight, once being spotted with UPFA provincial councillor Hirunika Premachandra at a restaurant. He has also had his social media account hacked-probably by mischief-makers who are keen to hurt him politically.
Recently, some media outlets were suggesting that Fernando will do a ‘Dayasiri’ and quit the UNP to run for Uva Chief Minister as the UPFA’s candidate. He has however remained loyal to the UNP which reportedly guaranteed him a return to Parliament if he fails to win the election.  

The Uva provincial council poll is likely to be a decisive election. It will provide both the UNP and the UPFA with a barometer to test public opinion before the presidential and general elections. So, whether he wins or loses, Harin Fernando will be a much talked about figure in the days ahead.