News
Accessibility, taking time off and disappointment with candidates partly responsible for low voter turnout
View(s):By Tharushi Weerasinghe and Mimi Alphonsus
This week’s parliamentary polls recorded the lowest voter turnout in Sri Lanka’s recent electoral history.
Over 5.3 million registered voters failed to participate in the elections, and islandwide voter turnout reached a record low since 2010.
In the 2020 parliamentary elections, 3.9 million people failed to vote.
There was a wide range of issues that resulted in this outcome.
“My elderly mother did not exercise her vote this time because our designated polling booth did not have a ramp that her wheelchair could go up on,” said Nelka Perea, a 60-year-old voter from Thalawathugoda.
Polling centres at Asoka Vidayalaya (above) and Devi Balika (below), in Colombo. Pix by Indika Handuwala
The absence of necessary accessibility requirements was an issue that international election monitors pointed out during their observations. In its Election Day report, the Asia Network for Free Elections noted that, “accessibility challenges at polling stations” were one of the three consistent issues observed by monitors.
Some claimed they did not vote because they could not afford the time off. “It takes me a day to go home by bus, and that means I need at least three days of leave to go and vote and come back,” claimed Mohammed Thansim, a 23-year-old garment worker.
He noted that while he was permitted time off, the cost of travelling to his voting area and the loss of income from his daily wages were not bearable as he was the breadwinner for a family of four.
“There needs to be a mechanism through which those who work far from their registered areas can vote remotely,” said Mohammed Shiham, a 43-year-old tour guide. He says taking a day off to go and vote during tourist seasons costs him a lot of business.
“As guides, we are in different parts of the country during elections, so a system that allows people like us who work in tourism to vote without having to go hundreds of kilometres back and lose out on their bread and butter is essential,” he insisted. He felt that a fundamental right, like the right to vote, needs to be facilitated for all citizens at the lowest cost possible.
Others, however, said they were abstaining from voting out of principle as they were disappointed with their candidates. “The party that my values align with was playing around, and I felt irresponsible voting for them or voting for a party I do not feel seen by,” said another 30-year-old from Kelaniya, who wished to remain anonymous.
“One of the main reasons for the low turnout was that everyone knew what the outcome of the election would be,” noted Dr. Jayatissa de Costa, President’s Counsel and Election Analyst. Dr. de Costa claimed that voters rarely vote against a winning candidate, especially when the win is close to the next election. “Winner takes it all isn’t the rule, but it seems to have been the case this election season, especially since the gap between the presidential and parliamentary elections was relatively short.”
He added that it was also possible that many of the voters who did not turn up at the polls were from the opposition’s voter pool, especially since the SJB votes reduced significantly compared with the 2020 parliamentary eElections and the presidential polls in September.
“Disheartened party supporters likely abstained from voting, and this is not surprising because most opposition parties do not have a proper grassroots machinery or organising,” said Dr. de Costa, who held that the NPP, on the other hand, began their campaigning a few years ago. “This is teamwork, and the better team wins,” he said.
However, Dr. de Costa did not think the low voter turnout was a cause for concern because it was an isolated incident.
At Thursday’s polls, 11.8 million voted, with an islandwide turnout of 68.93%. In the Presidential election just two months before, 79% of registered voters exercised their civic rights.
Over 550,000 people did not participate in the electoral process in the Gampaha electoral district, and a similar number failed to turn up in Colombo. In Kurunegala, 438,299 did not vote, while in Mahanuwara, 355,472 failed to turn up at polling stations.
There were also 667,240 rejected votes this year, about 80,000 less than in 2020. Nuwara Eliya (42195) and Jaffna (32767) experienced the highest rate of ballot rejections at over 9%.
| A vote for long weekend trip rather than polls? As the country saw a calm election weekend, there was speculation whether the long holiday prompted some voters to choose leisure trips over casting their ballots, possibly contributing to a lower voter turnout. We had an influx of people for lunch stops and breakfast. We also had some clients for rooms as well. Bigger hotels had reasonable occupancy from locals and foreigners,” said Saliya Dayananda of the Cultural Triangle Hoteliers’ Association. Several local travellers passed through Dambulla towards Colombo post-election day, he said. According to hotel consultant, Tyron David, there was no indication of a significant increase in local travellers in hotels in Nuwara Eliya. This may have been due to weather conditions. “Usually during the long weekends it’s the local tourists who frequent these hotels and we mark out long weekends on our calendars because we expect that we would be full on those weekends. However, that was not the case for this particular weekend,” he said Mr. David. | |
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!