Editorial

The General elections will take place tomorrow, and like all such elections, this one is crucial to the country and the likely direction it will take in the next five years.

In the past, these elections were even more significant. They were clashes between the Free Market economy and Socialism; a choice between a pro-Western stance and a pro-Soviet/China and anti-West position. Today these ideological differences have narrowed. The two opposing camps, like in most of the rest of the world, have come to accept the free mixed market economy, with the extent of State intervention being the point of departure. Even in tomorrow’s poll, it is one side arguing for less Government involvement, and the other calling for greater Government; one as the vehicle for economic growth with a trickle-down effect to the ordinary people; the other for a safety net for the poor and vulnerable, both with their merits and demerits.

The January 8 Presidential election was the turning point. By a relatively small margin, but still, the people voted out of office a powerful President and installed a new one. The newly anointed President was expected to stay neutral but he has fired a salvo straight into his own camp. In football parlance it’s considered an ‘own goal’. He is keeping people guessing where he stands in the whole political process — is it that he wants his party – the SLFP-led coalition, the UPFA, to win — but without the former President? He is the leader of one party and Head of a Government led by the other. Both are claiming him as their face. One would imagine that to be a nice place to be in, wanted by both, but the headache he must endure in that exalted position only he would know.

Election fever or ‘chanda unusuma’ is absent in this election and many think for the better. The violence related to elections has always been a slur on Sri Lanka’s long tradition of elections. The stakes being so high, the thuggery when elections started in the 1930s with knuckledusters and cutting an ‘edanda’ (plank bridge) to prevent whole villages from voting has now ‘progressed’ to automatic rifles and stuffing ballot boxes.

The Elections Commissioner’s tough stand has given back the lost spine to the Police and the public service to act independently and impartially. They are not to regard high profile candidates as demi-gods but to treat them all as equal before the law.
The calmer atmosphere prevailing throughout the country has also given an opportunity to the voters to ponder more deeply and more meaningfully on the issues before them. There are fewer opportunities for them to be swayed by obvious gimmicks such as free musical shows, towering cut-outs, and to be treated in various ways which include food, drink and gifts, not to mention the abuse of state apparatus.

Not that it doesn’t happen anymore. The latest ploy is for prospective law-makers of this country to give small dinners, sometimes two or three a night at different venues. That is besides them doling out children’s kit bags and the like with the candidate’s ‘mug’ and number on it.

Admittedly, the candidates do face a problem in getting their numbers across to the voters in the complicated preference voting system in existence, but to ensure a level playing field, blanket restrictions are probably best.

To ensure a free and fair poll, the Elections Commissioner has also decided to assume the role of Chief Censor of the media. One might ask if his guidelines imposing a ban on interviews and political articles, during the 48-hour period before an election have been tested with the Freedom of Expression and Right to Information provisions in the Constitution. While one can understand a freeze on electioneering during the ‘silent period’, whether the media need to be gagged to such an extent is a contentious question.

These are matters the media will need to look at in the future without meekly surrendering to the writ of the Commissioner. While appreciating his eagerness to conduct a free and fair poll, it must not dampen the enthusiasm of the electorate to a point where the hitherto high rate of polling starts dropping due to the lack of ‘chanda unusma’. There’s a need to keep the temperature temperate — not too hot, not too cold.

Overall we complimented the Elections Commissioner in January on how he conducted the Presidential poll. He probably feels that sans tough talk and concerted action, he will not be taken too seriously.

In the absence of the theatrics attached to usual campaigns, the campaign for good, clean candidates has had some impact. So much so that candidates themselves are talking about it. Only a handful from the previous set were left out of the race this time at nomination and as many as 202 of the 225 members of the last Parliament are in the fray again.

To expect the electorate to dump them may be asking for too much, but there is a heavy burden cast upon the voters too — to vote responsibly.