Heads govt. loses, tails others win

Wednesday 4th January, 2023

The government is behaving like a lonely child in a haunted house. Reports that the Election Commission (EC) has been left with no alternative but to hold the much-delayed Local Government (LG) polls has scared the SLPP-UNP regime out of its wits. An election is something it needs like a hole in the head for obvious reasons, but it is hard put to postpone the mini polls, again. It however is bound to try every trick in the book to compass that end. Sadly, the EC stands accused of helping further the government’s interests by delaying the publication of a gazette notification calling for nominations. One can only hope that the EC will prove its critics wrong and clear its name lest public trust in the electoral process should further erode.

The Opposition says the government is planning to postpone the LG polls after the submission of nominations. There is hardly anything the current regime will baulk at doing to avoid an election, given the massive build-up of public anger in the polity, and, therefore, the possibility of a sinister move to put off the LG polls cannot be ruled out.

We have the government windbags bellowing rhetoric. Pretending to be confident of winning any electoral contest, they claim that elections should not be held in view of the current economic crisis! People who are scared of ghosts make loud noises when they have to go past cemeteries at night; they even tuck up their sarongs and utter expletives, challenging the apparitions to come out. In so doing, they only make a public display of their fear.

The clock is ticking, and what’s up the government’s sleeve will be seen soon. It has two options. It can either allow the EC to hold the LG polls or employ some undemocratic method to postpone them. Whichever option it adopts, it will be a loser. If the mini polls are held, the SLPP-UNP combine will find all odds stacked against it. A poll postponement will give a turbo boost to the Opposition’s anti-government campaign and there will be a wave of protests; and the breather it might be able gain will be like an interval in hell, so to speak. It will face more trouble on the political front before suffering an electoral defeat. Heads it loses, tails its rivals win!

It is only wishful thinking that the SLPP, the UNP and their allies will be able to improve their electoral performance, either jointly or severally, by postponing elections. It will not be able to utilise the time gained from a poll postponement to win back popular support because of the prevalence of waste, the abuse of power, corruption, cronyism, and economic mismanagement. It may be recalled that the Yahapalana government succeeded in postponing the Provincial Council elections in 2017, but the SLFP and the UNP suffered humiliating defeats at the LG polls, the following year.

The SJB and the JVP are at the forefront of a campaign to crank up pressure on the government to respect the people’s franchise by conducting elections. They deserve praise and public support. But they owe an apology to the people for having helped amend the Provincial Council Elections Act in the most despicable manner to put off the PC polls indefinitely, in 2017. The Yahapalana government smuggled in several sections into the amendment Bill at the committee stage with the help of the UNP MPs, many of whom are currently in the SJB, the SLFP, the JVP and the TNA, which is now demanding that the PC elections be held. The SLPP, which took up the cudgels for the people’s right to vote, in 2017, is now all out to postpone elections.

The UNP, the SLPP, the SJB, the SLFP, the JVP and the TNA have thus demonstrated that they act out of expediency rather than principle and do not scruple to subjugate the interests of the people to their political agendas.

The Opposition and the government are like two peas in a pod where their unscrupulousness and political opportunism are concerned, but the former is lucky that a pressing need has arisen for a clean break with the present regime.