Can the Opposition find principled candidates?

It is clear that the Opposition parties’ are attempting to defeat the SLPP and the UNP, the President’s party using the current economic hardships faced by the people, at this election which could then be a trend setter to the subsequent national level elections

Despite the chairman of the Election Commission (EC) Nimal Punchihewa having announced that he would call nominations for the local government elections during the end of this month (December), a group of Opposition MPs have filed two petitions in the Supreme Court seeking an order to the EC to hold those elections. One petition has been filed by the General Secretary of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Ranjith Madduma Bandara and Professor G.L.Peiris who is a member of the “Nidahas Janatha Sabhawa,” one of the dissident groups of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Dayasiri Jayasekara, SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella, Spokesman of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M.A.Sumanthiran and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, a member of another dissident group of the SLPP have filed the other petition.

They seem to have somewhat strong grounds to seek an order from the court irrespective of the EC Chairman’s announcement. Firstly, President Ranil Wickremesinghe had told a group of professionals on October 9 that he wished to reduce the number of members of the local government bodies from 8000 to 4000 which might probably take a long time. Secondly, President’s statement was proved to be not a usual rhetoric of a politician since Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardene in early November appointed a delimitation Committee headed by the Chairman of the Delimitation Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya to demarcate reduced number of wards within the areas of LG bodies.

Deshapriya Committee has to present its report to the Premier before February 28 next year while the election has to be held before March 19. The committee report has to be ratified by Parliament only after which political parties would be informed as to how many candidates they have to nominate to each local government bodies. If the committee presents its report on February 28, there would be only 18 days for the ratification of it and for the parties to be informed apart from conducting their campaigns before the election.However, the EC can ignore this process and hold the election for the wards demarcated for the last election held in 2018, unless the government made changes to the LG election law, according to Deshapriya who was the previous Chairman of the EC. That means, the government can change the law, before the nominations are announced, providing for the election to be held to elect a reduced number of members. The EC Chairman Punchihewa also seems to suspect such a scenario to happen. He had told Daily Mirror of December 5 that he didn’t know whether there would be any legal or Constitutional impediment to hold the electionsas scheduled in the days to come, before releasing of the gazette.  

Vindicating the speculations, Justice Minister Wijeyadsa Rajapakshe had told The Sunday Times that the government was proposing to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee to decide on local government electoral changes including the reduction of number of members to be elected at the next poll. He had also said that the PSC report is expected within two weeks, enabling the Cabinet to approve the amendments prior to the next poll scheduled to be held in March. Despite the Opposition parties’ suspicion having a sound ground owing to these arrangements

and the seeming popularity decline of the SLPP against the backdrop of the current economic crisis, if the arrangements could be put in place, it is the country that would be benefitted. Hence, the Opposition should, without hanging on to their adamancy look into the possibility of saving billions of rupees for the next four years, by way of downsizing the local government bodies, without delaying the elections. Now that they have initiated legal action in this regard, they could get an assurance from the government before the apex court that the elections would be held as scheduled.

It is clear that the Opposition parties’ are attempting to defeat the SLPP and the UNP, the President’s party using the current economic hardships faced by the people, at this election which could then be a trend setter to the subsequent national level elections. The key question is not who is going to win the election, but are the political parties prepared to nominate a group of principled candidates for the election at least now, after having gone through such a horrendous economic catastrophe.

All major parties fielded celebrities such as actors, actresses, sportsmen at past elections and hoodwinked the people. People were too so gullible that even actress “Paba” obtained more votes than veteran politician Karu Jayasuriya at the 2010 General Election. Both contested as UNP candidates from Gampaha District. Many politicians in the south, north and east shined at past elections merely because of their racist vitriol during their campaigns. A major part of the credit for Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory at the last Presidential election must go to the anti- Muslim Campaign by the SLPP and the media affiliated to it.

Education qualifications have proved to be incapable to make a person disciplined or principled, especially where there are opportunities at hand for corruption. We heard governors of the Central Bank claiming that money printing would not result in inflation. There were even experts in the legal field who voted in Parliament for 17th ,18th,19th,20th and 21st Amendments to the Constitution which alternately negated each other. Professors in economics approved all actions taken recently by the executive that destroyed the economy, just to save their skin. Medical experts became agricultural advisors to the executive. Ministers in charge of health promoted various local potions for COVID 19 without any scientific basis. Millions were wasted to carry the cadavers of those who died of COVID 19 to Ottamavadi in the Eastern Province from other

far away provinces due to politically motivated decisions. Some medical professional with political affiliations were in the forefront in the campaign against the “Wanda Dostara.” When March 12 movement put forward a set of guidelines for political parties to field principled candidates at elections, in 2015, all parties agreed and signed a public document. Yet, some political parties nominated persons indicted for murder at the 2015 Parliamentary election, arguing that they were not convicted by the court. Those who openly justified the high profile scams were also nominated as candidates at the same election.

Opposition parties rightly claim that the current move to form a coalition between the SLPP and the UNP is an insult to the people’s intelligence, as both parties accused each other until May, this year of serious issues such as plundering the public coffers and even treason. And now they are also rightly calling for early elections on the grounds that the public opinion is not reflected in the Parliament. True, then they must have a group who can rectify the situation. Can they

prove their credentials by nominating principled candidates at the forthcoming LG elections? What is the assurance they would give to the country?