Elections, electioneering and ground realities

The Commissioner of Elections has confirmed that presidential elections will be held sometime between 17 September and 16 October 2024. While a plethora of candidates could be expected to contest the election, the reality is that only three main candidates stand any chance of being elected.  

President Wickremesinghe is actively canvassing, courting political parties and religious leaders, disgruntled politicians/MPs, meeting with voters and initiating numerous development schemes and extending largesse to deprived sections of the community in different parts of the country. 

He is also reminding the electorate of the shortages of goods and the near anarchic situation that prevailed prior to his rise to the presidency on 21 July 2022. 

Also in the running is NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake who is criss-crossing the capitals of the Western world campaigning among expatriate workers in those countries. Dissanayake has also become a must-visit politician for the US ambassador. He has also received invitations to visit our giant neighbour India, where he met several important leaders of that country.

And then we have the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) leader Premadasa who failed to accept the opportunity of functioning as premier, when then President Gotabaya offered the post of premier to him on a platter.
Today there is much in-fighting within the SJB with some of its Members of Parliament (MPs) openly criticising him. Premadasa too, like President Wickremesinghe is extending largesse among voters albeit in smaller quantities. But as the proverb says “...a house divided against itself cannot stand”, thus weakening Premadasa’s chances at a future poll.

The once near-undefeatable Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is now less than a shadow of its former self. The party is still to even put forward a presidential candidate of its own. In like manner, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) is in tatters. Even its leader holds his post subject to a court ruling.

But what of the most important section of any election -the people?

According to statistics published in yesterday’s (24.06.2024)‘Daily Mirror’ between 2021 and 2023 there has been a significant rise in the number of persons sentenced to jail for thefts and robberies. 5,687 were persons imprisoned for these offences in 2023, compared with just 1,202 in 2021. 2022 saw a 44% increase in theft and robberies!

Why are so many of our fellow citizens apparently taking to robbery in such large numbers? The answer is simple. The inflation rate in our country averaged 10.25 percent from 1986 until 2024, reaching an all-time high of 67.40 percent in September of 2022. 

During this period, around 500,000 persons (daily wage earners) lost employment due to both Covid-19 as well as when the economy collapsed, and the country declared bankruptcy.

At today’s cost of living, a family of four requires a sum of Rs. 150,000 to have just three meals a day. The average monthly income for the vast majority of workers in the country varies between 45,000 to Rs 60,000 per month. Even if both parents are working they would receive around Rs. 120,000 a month. This sum does not permit these families to have three meals a day.

Most working-class families do not own their own homes. They live in rented abodes amid squalid conditions. They have also to provide for children’s education, travel and other necessities. 

Estate workers of this country (those who bring in a large portion of our foreign earnings), claim they still do not receive the Rs. 1,700 per day promised by the government.

Persons engaged in temporary work, who live in the inner cities of our country do not receive daily work and their daily income does not exceed Rs. 2,000 per day.

These unfortunates must of necessity take to petty theft or housebreaking to make ends meet. It is these folk who make up the statistics of the numbers imprisoned.

While the president has outlined his work programme, we have yet to hear from his  challengers, what exactly their plans are to improve the lot of these large numbers of our people. Neither have they shown us, how they hope to bring in direct foreign investment needed to get out of our indebtedness.