Farewell to justice and franchise

Tuesday, 28th February, 2023

One of the JVP activists who suffered injuries at the hands of the police during a protest against the postponement of the local government (LG) polls, in Colombo, on Sunday, has died in hospital. Our hearts go out to the family members of the deceased and all other victims. The police must be condemned unreservedly for having snuffed out a life. There is no way the government can absolve itself of the blame for the tragic incident. It too deserves condemnation!

The SLPP-UNP government is a dead man walking; its desperation knows no bounds. It will go the whole hog to suppress democratic dissent. The police officers responsible for Sunday’s attack must be identified and hauled up before court.

A government that fears elections and goes so far as to postpone or cancel them and order crackdowns on those who take to the streets to safeguard their franchise is a danger to society.

The pitiable sight of the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe regime doing its darnedest to cover up the fact that it has undermined the Election Commission (EC) to delay the LG polls indefinitely for fear of losing them reminds us of the predicament of the proverbial cat that defecated on a rock. A beleaguered government whose popularity is at its nadir baulks at nothing in trying to avert a midterm electoral setback. A recent survey has revealed that the approval ratings of the current dispensation has dropped to 10%. So, it is only natural that the SLPP-UNP grandees are all out to deny the public an opportunity to exercise their franchise, and their Brownshirts (read the police) carry out brutal attacks on pro-democracy protesters.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed in Parliament, the other day, that there had been no election to begin with and therefore the question of a poll postponement did not arise. He faulted the EC for having declared the LG polls in contravention of the procedure established by the law. His claim ‘made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes’, one may say with apologies to Hilaire Belloc. It was meant to be in defence of some servile public officials who have chosen to toe the government line and defy the EC directives, but it has turned out to be an indictment of them instead.

President Wickremesinghe told Parliament that Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Mahinda Siriwardena, and Government Printer Gangani Liyanage would have been for the high jump if they had carried out the EC’s directives in respect of the LG polls, which were to be held on 09 March. Going by his assertion, the two officials have already committed punishable offences! Siriwardena initially made public funds to the tune of millions of rupees available to the EC for the LG polls, and Liyanage had a large number of ballot papers printed before throwing a monkey wrench in the works. Above all, President Wickremesinghe is the Minister of Finance, and he ought to explain why he allowed the Finance Ministry to allocate some funds for an election, which, he insists, was not declared properly. There has been a serious lapse on his part as well. Here is a textbook example of the ‘boomerang effect’.

Someone can now go to court against the Finance Minister, the Secretary to the Finance Ministry and the Government Printer and cite the President’s above-mentioned pronouncement in Parliament as evidence against them. A retired colonel has invoked the jurisdiction of the apex court in a bid to prevent the conduct of the LG polls on account of the current economic crisis, and anyone can claim that the Finance Minister, the Finance Ministry Secretary and the Government Printer have violated his or her fundamental rights by causing public funds to be spent on the LG polls, which, the President says, were not properly declared.

Besides, the District Secretaries accepted deposits from about 80,000 candidates; they too, have done something wrong, according to what the President has told Parliament. Does the government intend to take any action against them for having carried out the EC’s orders, which the President has deemed unlawful?

The UNP, which President Wickremesinghe himself leads, also made deposits for the LG polls and submitted nominations. It also embarked on its election campaign. Shouldn’t Wickremesinghe sack UNP General Secretary Palitha Range Bandara and others for having done so? Or, is it that his own party has not bought into his contention that the EC’s decision to hold the LG polls is devoid of legal validity?

When it came to light that the government was planning to derail the LG polls, we warned that the ruling potentates were playing with fire. Let them be urged to stop trifling with the people’s franchise, hold elections and ensure that there will be no more killings.