Polls - then and now

With the Western Province go to the polls tomorrow it would be not out of place to appeal to all political party leaders to ensure a calm and peaceful election. We say this because the Western Province has had relatively incident free elections over the years and particularly the Colombo city was noted for it's friendly atmosphere during election times with rival supporters mingling freely in a spirit of camaraderie and bonhomie.

Hopefully such an atmosphere would prevail during tomorrow's poll as well as it's aftermath.

It is sad to note that elections have now become a battle of strength not between ideas, reasoned arguments or the merits between political ideology but muscle power and financial clout between competing forces. The preferential vote has not helped matters with intra party clashes the norm.

It is in this context that a comment made by Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake evokes interest. Addressing a media briefing on Wednesday to explain certain polls guidelines and steps taken to ensure a free and fair poll the Election Chief went on to observe that the 1982 Referendum set in the rot for election violence that we are all witnessing to the present day.

No doubt the 1982 Referendum could be put down as the turning point in the country's electoral landscape where election violence came to be institutionalised in this country not to mention the enthronement of election malpractice. One could recall how organised gangs went about on an election rigging spree which made a mockery of the whole democratic exercise prompting the remark of Mrs Bandaranaike of the biggest fraud being perpetrated on the people. She should know because her Attanagalle bastion was won by the 'Lamp' with a majority which the UNP had never polled in terms of the total votes cast for the party at any previous election.

But the blackest episode of that abomination was when the vote of Hector Kobbekaduwa the unsuccessful Presidential candidate only two months before had his vote cast before his arrival at the polling station. Ditto for Pieter Keuneman the Communist Party stalwart. How could one expect the election staff to be ignorant as to the identity of such well known figures. It was plain that this was an orchestrated attempt deliberately made to undermine the people's franchise that fitted into the famous claim of "rolling back the electoral map".

That was the beginning of the end of the free democratic franchise of the people long held sacred in this country, with subsequent elections only providing the opportunity to fine-tune the rigging and malpractice to a nicety e.g. the dipping in of the finger marked with indelible ink into a pineapple sliver to get rid of the stain, first made popular at the July 1988 Provincial Council elections.

From then on elections became a big farce and people lost all faith in the democratic exercise with muscle power of the Governments prevailing over the cherished free franchise of the people. The Wayamba provincial poll gained special notoriety in this regard.

The UNP under J.R Jayewardene at the time was not to know that it was releasing a monster on that fateful day in December 1982 that was going to besmirch the country's electoral landscape and the hitherto sacrosanct franchise of the people, with elections never going to be the same again.

With the result we today have election monitors from abroad to oversee our elections, a telling indictment on a country which once prided itself on the free exercise of the peoples' franchise.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already warned his party men against engaging in any form election violence or malpractices. The Government hardly needs to resort to these tactics placed as it is on a pedestal of popular appeal at this juncture.

The Western Provincial Council elections we hope will provide the beginning wherein we go back to those days where the voter was king, dismantling all venal practices that crept into the electoral system from the time of that notorious referendum thus erasing the blot left on the country's electoral landscape.