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Former Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya, who went to cast his vote at his down south polling booth, initially went unnoticed until he reminded the senior presiding officer who he was, or had been, and that he was one who strictly handled elections in the recent past.

The former EC chairman was wearing a mask when he arrived at the polling station to cast his vote along with a few other people.

Mahinda Deshapriya

When he entered the hall where the polling was taking place, he noticed that the process of identifying voters was carried out in a manner where one officer checked the identity card, read out the name, and cut off the name from the list while another officer issued a ballot paper.

After witnessing this process, which he felt was wrong, the veteran polls chief took it upon himself to correct the staff and gave the officer in charge a talking-to.

When he was told that the staff were first-timers on election duty, the senior presiding officer, who gave wrong instructions too, was also reprimanded.

To make matters worse, a police officer deployed at the polling station failed to recognise the fairly well-known EC chairman and began instructing him on how to behave inside the polling station and maintain distance.

The conduct of the police officer further infuriated Mr. Deshapriya. He pointed out that the presence of the police officer inside the polling booth was a violation of election law. The armed police officer stayed seated inside the booth.

The senior presiding officer was once again reprimanded for allowing an armed police officer to remain inside the polling booth. The former EC chairman requested those present to take photographs of the unruly police officer who was not following protocol, but the EC had ordered that no photographs be taken inside booths.

Diaspora funder gets a belly full from senior ITAK leader

This week’s voting pattern of the people in the north, where the National Peoples’ Power (NPP) secured three seats, came as a surprise and raised many eyebrows both locally and in diaspora circles for obvious reasons.

Many were also surprised that former Jaffna district parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran failed to get re-elected this time while a medical superintendent turned social media celebrity contested as an independent candidate and got elected by carrying out a campaign on social media platforms.

Soon after the results were announced, a concerned diaspora member from Australia called one of the senior Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) leaders to lament the voting pattern and express concern over the future of the Tamil nationalist cause. The man collected donations from the diaspora and funded the campaigns of selected candidates in various districts, but they lost—and worse still, many even lost their deposit money of more than Rs 18,000.

The initial proposal was to convince the ITAK leader to unite the party by bringing back the breakaway groups. The veteran ITAK leader responded in a not-so-polite manner, saying that people like the caller—diaspora individuals—carried out ill-thought campaigns against Mr. Sumanthiran to tarnish his image and encourage other candidates, resulting in the split of the vote bank.

The ITAK leader asked why some 400 candidates contested for five seats in the Jaffna district and the diaspora blindly funded them. People are fed up with that fact of internal rivalries and hate campaigns and decided to go with the AKD wave, he said.

There was no response from the other end.

Mahinda won’t call it quits

While former parliamentarian Mahindananda Aluthgamage announced his retirement from politics yesterday, his one-time boss and former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, brushed aside any talk of retirement.

Mr. Rajapaksa told journalists that his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party had expected to win at least three seats, and it did.

“Are you mad?” was his swift reply when a journalist asked if he was willing to give up the fight.

When another asked if he was contemplating retirement, the former president shut him down. “I won’t retire so easily,” he quipped.

Diplomats hail NPP’s victory

Japan and India were among the first to congratulate President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on the landslide victory of the National People’s Power, which won a landslide victory in Thursday’s parliamentary polls.

Appreciating the peaceful and democratic parliamentary elections, Japan’s new ambassador, Akio Isomata, commended the Sri Lankan people’s active engagement in the democratic process and extended his warm congratulations to all newly elected members of parliament.

Meanwhile, Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santhosh Jha called on President Dissanayake in the afternoon with a bouquet of flowers to congratulate his party’s resounding victory at the polls.

The United Kingdom, Pakistan, Iran, and other countries followed shortly thereafter, sending congratulatory messages.

Books on the bus go round and round

Have you seen a library on a public bus?

A bus traveling from Horana to Kandy has a small library full of books that the commuter can read and return. The project has been progressing since 2018.

There is no library fee or any forms to fill out for membership. The only requirement is that you are a passenger on the bus.

The idea was promoted by a librarian of the Kegalle Public Library and sponsored by the private bus’s owner.

Politicisation of term test paper: Ministry launches probe

The Education Ministry has called for an immediate investigation into the incident where at least five questions regarding National Peoples’ Power (NPP) were included in the term test paper for Grade 12 students at C.W.W. Kannagara Madya Maha Vihara in the Kalutara District.

Education Ministry Secretary Thilaka Jayasundara has instructed officials to carry out an investigation immediately to see how the five questions were included in the test paper.

The secretary said the paper was prepared by the school, and the ministry played no part in it.

The multiple-choice questions (MCQs) were related to the NPP manifesto, the voter turnout at the recent presidential polls, the name of the President’s Secretary, portfolios that were assigned to Prime Minister Amarasuriya, and the year in which the JVP was founded.

While pointing out that one of the JVP stalwarts is an alumnus, a teacher attached to the school was heard asking his colleague whether the country is fast becoming a one-party system like China, where children learn about the party policies in schools. Or was it the work of an over-eager staffer trying to score some brownie points with the new administration?

After polls defeat, Aluthgamage retires from politics

Former Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage announced yesterday that he was retiring from politics.

Mr. Aluthgamage’s decision to retire comes after he failed to get elected to parliament at Thursday’s general elections.

Making a statement yesterday after his loss was confirmed, Mr. Aluthgamage said he bowed to the will of the people.

The Nawalapitiya strongman contested from the Kandy district under the gas cylinder symbol of the New Democratic Front (NDF). The party obtained only one seat in the district, and Mr. Aluthgamage fell short in the preferential vote count, losing to Anuradha Jayaratne, son of former Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne.

Mr. Aluthgamage, a former minister, has been a feature of Sri Lankan politics for three decades, winning successive parliamentary elections. He has faced numerous allegations of corruption during his time in government and has been embroiled in court cases where he has vigorously denied all allegations levelled against him.

Candidates crying over spilt votes

For some of the candidates who contested Thursday’s parliamentary elections, it was a painful end, not because they lost the election, but because they were defeated by the narrowest of margins.

Some of the candidates believed they could have got elected instead of the candidates who were marginally ahead of them if they had made a little more effort to canvass for a few more votes.

Among those who narrowly missed out on entering Parliament was Dharmadasa Banda from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) contesting from the Monaragala district. He was short of 132 votes. He received only 20,309 votes, while W.H.M. Dharmasena, who was just ahead of him with 20,171 votes, was elected to Parliament.

For former minister Rajitha Senaratne, contesting from the Kalutara district on the New Democratic Front (NDF) ticket, the gap was even narrower. The difference between him and former minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena in the final preference vote tally was about 130 votes. Mr.Abeygunawardena was duly elected from the NDF to the only seat the party won from the district.

2024 general elections stand out for many firsts

It was an election of many firsts at the 2024 parliamentary election, which saw a historic landslide win for the NPP. Here are some of the highlights:

The United National Party, or its breakaway group, Samagi Jana Balawegaya, had not lost a single Colombo city polling division in 30 years, but this time they lost all of them to the NPP.

The NPP achieved the highest victory margin in parliamentary history, securing 61.56% of the vote.

The NPP won the largest number of polling divisions (152) and electoral districts (21) in parliamentary history.

This was the highest number of seats ever secured by a party in a general election, both at the district level and through the national list.

For the first time under
the proportional representation system, a single party won two-thirds of the seats
in Parliament.

For the first time, a national party secured victories in
the Jaffna and Vanni
electoral districts.

For the first time, 10%
of elected representatives
are women.

For the first time, a party that secured less than 5% of the vote in the last general election emerged as the winner.

Vijitha Herath sets a record for the highest number of preferential votes received by a single candidate, securing 80% of NPP’s votes in the Gampaha district.

Harini Amarasuriya sets a record for the highest number of votes ever received by a woman candidate, obtaining 83% of NPP’s preferential votes in the Colombo district.

This was also the first time that as many as two-thirds of the MPs were first-timers.