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In South’s four-cornered battle, SJB and NPP make head start with visible campaigns
View(s):- Anthony David reporting from the Southern Province
The flags that greet visitors to the South—Galle, Matara and Hambantota diastricts—are a reminder of the September 21 presidential election, even if the crowds are much less.
The purple flag of the National People’s Power (NPP), with a compass symbol in the middle, or the green and yellow flag of the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) sway on poles from bare lands, abandoned houses, shops, and even garages. If the offices of these parties, formidable front runners, are far and few in this province, the enthusiasm is high. In marked contrast, violent incidents are notably absent.
SLPP candidate Namal Rajapaksa's posters on the wall of Carlton House, the Rajapaksa ancestral home in Tangalle. Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
Two main contenders at the presidential election—Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power contesting under the compass symbol and Sajith Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya under the telephone symbol—are aware that the display of their flags is one of showing presence in the Southern Province.
Election officials in the district have ensured that the polls laws are enforced. The result has been a lesser number of cutouts. Posters that spring up are removed. That has not stopped the contenders from stretching to the maximum limits the law permits them.
In this rivalry are the SJB and NPP supporters. In contrast, the number of offices of independent candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe is much less. He is contesting under the symbol of a gas cylinder. That too is not visible except in the few offices that have been set up. I asked a supporter who was busy at an office the reason. He did not wish to speak on the record but said that the United National Party (UNP), of which President Wickremesinghe was the leader, was “inactive or non-existent” at the electorate and village level. Cyril, as I identify him, declared that another reason was the “lack of sufficient funding.” He lamented, “I cannot sustain the staff that is supporting us. We must provide them with meals and other requirements if we are to continue to retain their services. This has turned out to be difficult. The little funding we receive from those in the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) branch leaders is hardly sufficient,” he said.
An unmanned first floor party office of the SJB in Hambantota
Nihal Gamini Medagoda is one of the long-standing UNP supporters in Bentota. He even fielded his daughter for a previous local election on the UNP ticket. He said the support from the party was lacking. “The United National Party is lacking organisation; mostly the SLPP breakaway groups are running the election campaign; the ground-level campaign is weak with only two more weeks left for the polling date,” he said, adding that he was “trying his level best to secure a victory for the president, by putting up his own party office and propaganda material. We don’t have financial assistance or vehicles to carry out their work. The organisers who are given the task do not carry out the ground-level campaign,” he said.
President's campaign team in Galle says they would intensify their camapign in the coming days
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) candidate Namal Rajapaksa, contesting under the Pohottuwa symbol, has a limited number of offices in the province. This is in stark contrast to the 2019 presidential election campaign, during which the Southern Province was decked with Pohottuwa flags. Its candidate, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, secured over 66 percent of the vote in the province.
“In previous elections, we used to see the ‘Nil Balakaya’ team actively campaigning for the Pohottuwa, but all of them are missing this time,” 53-year-old fisherman Irshad Samusudeen said when I met him at the Hambantota fisheries harbour. “We have noticed that those who supported the Pohottuwa are now supporting Sajith (Premadasa) or Anura Kumara (Dissanayake), he said while preparing to leave for the sea.
Onetime Pohottuwa supporter, G.W. Samarasinghe, 66, told the Sunday Times that in all previous elections, he had been strongly supporting the Rajapaksas, but this time he would be voting for Mr. Premadasa even though the people in his area benefitted from the SLPP.
“I cannot vote for the NPP, which is backed by the JVP, which was responsible for killing one of my close friends in 1989,” he said.
Many of those who were staunch supporters of the SLPP have now shifted their support to the NPP.
Many of the Pohottuwa supporters concede that the party has lost its support base after several years of dominance by the Rajapaksa family, but they are confident of a comeback at the next elections.
“Our supporters have told me that they would come back and support the SLPP at the very first election to be held after the presidential election. They say as we are not keenly contesting the presidential election, they have shifted to other parties,” Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabahawa’s former chairman Lalitha Wanigasekara told the Sunday Times.
“However, it is not that we have lost our base completely. People are silently extending their support to the party,” he said.
“There are others also who are worried about extending support to us openly. Recently I had a meeting, and I found that some of my supporters were staying outside the grounds. When I asked them why they were standing outside, they said they did not want to openly express their support to the party as they fear repercussions from the NPP,” he said.
Mr. Wanigasekara, whose uncle had been shot dead by gunmen, said the fears of some of the party supporters were reasonable, but added he was confident they would vote for the party candidate, Namal Rajapaksa.
While on the campaign trail in Tissamaharamaya town, SJB supporter Suji Samarasinghe told the Sunday Times, “We are confident of a victory in the Hambantota district, and our campaign is going well. The people remember the work done by Mr. Premadasa when he was a minister as well.”
Suji Samarasinghe confident of an SJB victory
In Hambantota, an NPP office has been forced to cover part of their cutouts outside the party office after the Election Commission officials warned them they were bigger than the stipulated size.
There have also been instances of intimidation and threats to some of the campaigners.
In Hambantota, an SJB activist said he had put up a party office in a land owned by one of his friends. However, the next day he had to remove it as the owner of the land had been intimidated by NPP supporters.
In the Matara district, too, a fair number of SLPP supporters said they would vote for the NPP.
SJB supporters argue that Mr. Premadasa could be able to put up a strong competition in the district as he obtained 25 percent of the vote in the 2019 election, and it was a matter of building up from there.
However, the support for the SJB at the last presidential election included the UNP votes, which may go in favour of Wickremesinghe this time.
In the Galle district, where the SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa received 64 percent of the vote and Premadasa 30 percent at the last presidential election, the votes are divided this time among the three main candidates. The business community in towns supports President Wickremesinghe, while in the interior, the trend was in favour of the NPP and the SJB.
The district has 903,163 votes and therefore is seen as a must-win district.
Nihal Gamini Medagoda
Poll-related violent incidents and election law violations have been relatively low compared to previous elections.
A senior police officer said the police had relatively less work compared to previous elections. “There have been only a couple of instances where posters, cutouts, and banners have been put up illegally. In some cases, we have informed the parties, and they have removed the cutouts on their own,” he said.
With only less than two weeks to go for the polls, parties are seen stepping up their campaigns.
At the Galle main election office set up to support President Wickremesinghe, Minister Ramesh Pathirana and former Minister Manusha Nanayakkara were seen giving out last-minute instructions and dispatching posters and propaganda material through organisers.
Dr. Pathirana said that although the NPP had a visible presence, it was not a physical presence. He said the NPP’s show was just a façade.
He said they would intensify campaign activities in the coming days to promote President Wickremesinghe at the grassroots level.
Despite some of the parties focusing on bringing into book those responsible for corruption in previous governments, the cost of living also seems one of the priority issues for which they expect a solution.
Fisherman Irshad Samusudeen
Though the main candidates have come out with elaborate manifestoes, many are sceptical about the promises.
“We will have to wait and see if these manifestoes are implemented by the winner,” said Dineris Silva, a trader in Galle town.
The NPP has also been strategically moved to show its presence on the ground. Party supporters were seen visiting houses regularly—in some places more than three occasions—to convince people to vote for their candidate.
The SJB too was seen carrying out its campaigns at the grassroots level with the distribution of propaganda material.
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