Columns
Say, Mr. Chairman of the EC, does COVID strike only at night?
Eyebrows were raised quizzingly over the announcement Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya made last month in Kandy on June 21 of his extraordinary decision to count the ballot papers of the August 5 election on the following day and not on the same evening immediately after polling had closed.
The raised brow regained its usual countenance only when the Election Commissioner reassured the nation on television the same week that the counting will be done the same night and the party result announced by sunrise on 6th morning. But hardly had six days passed when the Election Chief again had a change of heart. On June 30 he announced that the ballots will be counted only the following day at 8 am, leaving the boxes unattended for approximately 12 hours.
This is a radical and disturbing departure from the age old practice followed in the past in previously held general elections to begin the counting immediately after ballot boxes have been transported from the voting centres to the counting centres where manned by scores of public servants, conscripted for election duties, await to discharge their tasks. This tried and tested method of operation has been done to minimise the time factor so that vote rigging and stuffing of ballot boxes would be made more difficult.
And the lame duck excuse given to keep the ballot boxes in hibernation till the following morning is ‘due to health concerns.’
The only health reason that can be contemplated is the current COVID pandemic. The 2020 election was to have initially been held on April 25. In spite of the SLPP Government’s insistence it should be held on schedule, it was the Election Commission who braved the Government’s ire and postponed it to June 20 citing the rampaging coronavirus as the reason.
POLLS BOSS DESHAPRIYA: Counting votes only the day after
Despite a court judgement that did not disturb the holding of elections on June 20, the Election Commission took the unilateral decision to postpone the polls again to August 5 because it was not satisfied the COVID threat had disappeared.
In fact on May 12 Elections Chief Mahinda Deshapriya met with 34 party representatives and declared boldly that while his office was prepared to conduct the general election it will not play dice with human lives. The people, he said, would be denied of sovereignty without elections and sovereignty was the inalienable right of the people. But, he declared, ‘the Election Commission would not proceed with elections over the dead bodies of people.’
Thus with such a bold and proven track record of placing lives before polls, it can be safely assumed that had there been the slightest threat to people’s lives from COVID, even after following the health guidelines issued, Deshapriya would have had no hesitation in postponing the polls again.
So why then does the Elections Chief consider it safe to vote and safe to count in the day light hours without any health concerns arising but dangerous to engage in counting the polled votes after dusk? Why the COVID jitters after dark? Does the coronavirus strike only at night? The godless hours when ghouls rob graves and feed on the putrefying dead.
As the SLFP’s senior adviser, Prof. Lakshman Piyadasa, warned on Thursday: ‘’Sri Lanka had a bad reputation on election malpractices and the election history was replete with tales of intimidation of voters, stuffing of ballot boxes and impersonations.. What we are afraid of is that if anyone wants to, he can sabotage and change the pattern of the results. We have experience of blackouts, hijacking of ballot boxes and bundles of votes going missing during the counting at night.’’
Prof. Piyadasa further said that not only the SLFP but almost all other political parties in the fray had decided to speak to the Elections Commission on this issue.
Good. With the countdown begun and election only 72 hour away, they should do so at their soonest. And it will be prudent for the Election Commission to heed the advice given and act on it without delay. Why allow a dung drop of vote-rigging allegation to spoil what could have been a perfect glass of unadulterated milk?
To this end, the Election Commission should and must conduct its affairs in the manner Caesar expected his wife to conduct herself. Not merely unsuspected but above suspicion.
Send not to ask for whom the poll bell tolls: It tolls for theeThis Wednesday the masses will be streaming to the twice delayed polls to elect the Government of their choice in a pandemic atmosphere ridden with COVID fear and regimented by a list of health guidelines.Before the sacrificial demonic altar of a microscopic virus that has bedeviled the nation and still forages the blighted landscape for prey, the people will be, literally, voting with their lives to send 225 intelligent men and women of calibre, moral rectitude and integrity to Parliament to foster, safeguard and promote Lanka’s sovereign interests and make dawn a better future for her people.  MOCK POLLS: WITH COVID in the air, trial runs were conducted by the Elections Commission in June But is there such a breed of honest stout hearts on the polls menu this 5th of August? Or only some regurgitated, bunch of squashed cabbage leaves rotten to the core, recycled and served tossed up with a new salad dressing? If there were an equal temper of lionhearts on the election fare, it would certainly have been worth braving the COVID plague and imperiling life itself to see returned to Parliament an honourable tribe of men and women worthy of the nation’s trust and confidence. But is there such a breed with the required pedigree that will improve the bloodstock of the House? Alas, it would have been easier to have found a pin in a haystack than to have found even one sterling character among the old condemned stock of Diyawanna’s inmates, who now, masquerading as paragons of virtue, offer themselves for re-election to enact a repeat performance to double their spoils. So why bother to vote? Why vote for known drug lords, for illegal ethanol importers, for race bookie owners, for multi-million fraudsters, for those facing serious criminal charges, for the corrupt, for the scum of the earth? Why does the majority Lankan electorate, steeped in the moral tenets of Buddhism that specifically advice to shun bad company, continue to elect the undesirables, the notorious and the infamous as their honourable leaders and trust them with their purse for safekeeping as if evil possessed a macabre fascination and a deep seated attraction on the collective conscience of the Sinhalese? Do they suffer from a ‘death wish’ syndrome that urge them to hand over the key to their treasure chest and the reins of their future to the unscrupulous, in the manner chicken in a farm yard entrust the security of the coop to the foxes? One reason is that if the two major political parties nominate dirty rotten scoundrels as their candidates, the discerning voter is limited by the scarcity of choice. To overcome this limitation and to prevent scoundrels being given nominations, PAFFEREL initiated a voluntary scheme in March 2015, called the March 12 Declaration, whereby all political parties publicly pledged on the same platform to follow a set of minimum criteria in selecting candidates for all future elections and to desist from choosing anyone not within these parameters. In the midst of the media blitz, party secretaries duly signed the document, duly promising only ‘clean candidates’ will receive party nominations for ‘the year’s August 17 general election; and hopes soared that the new Parliament to be elected that year, and all Parliaments to come thereafter, will finally be riff-raff free, with ‘Les Disreputables’ barred entry and their evil and sin shut out. But the promise of the March 12 Declaration was never to blossom; its pledge transgressed, without remorse. As nomination day neared, it soon became apparent that political parties, with the SLFP in particular, had no intention of honouring its publicly sworn pledge to present to the masses selection only those with clean hands. So why bother to vote? When it has been billed as one of the most lackluster elections ever held in Lanka, with its ultimate winner held by the ruling party to be a forgone conclusion? So cocksure is the odds on hot favourite the SLPP on winning the race that it no longer dwells on the trivial detail of being the first past the winning post but focusses on the broader picture, calculating by how many furlongs the runner up will lag behind. In its elusive quest to sweep the polls with a two third majority and win power supreme, it hasn’t bothered to issue the traditional election manifesto. As its founder chairman G.L. Peiris confidently said last Wednesday, ‘the party would use the same election manifesto that was used for the Presidential Election 2019. ‘ The fight on the sidelines is between Ranil’s UNP and Sajith’s SJB. While Ranil promises an economic grand design to uplift Lanka from the COVID doldrums, Sajith plans to handout a cool 20,000 bucks each to all Lankans in the manner Britain’s Boris plans to pay 80 percent of salaries of workers till the economy gets back to normal. As G.L. Peiris said in January this year: ‘Manifestos of political parties are not really meant to be implemented.’ So why, if scoundrels throng the nominated list, if the winner is already a foregone conclusion, if an internecine war has split the UNP and uncertainty hovers as to whom to choose, if social mingling at polling booths increases COVID fears, if no faith can be kept in political promises, why, oh why, bother to vote and return the same corrupt set to wealth and power, with those who contest being the only beneficiaries of the whole exercise? Find the answer as to why voting is imperative in the words of Election Chief Deshapriya who said in June: ‘A country governed by officials may shine for a short period but will end up in a dictatorship. A country which does not have a Parliament consisting of elected representatives of the people is not democratic. Democracy is expensive. Dictatorship is cheap. ‘ Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolute. Your vote counts to maintain the proper balance So, to paraphrase Donne, send not to ask for whom the poll bell tolls: It tolls for thee. | |
Leave a Reply
Post Comment