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Afterthoughts of Opposition

The Opposition, that earlier acknowledged the Presidential election free and fair, has now taken a U-turn. Its spokespersons, one after the other, are now saying it is flawed. Rigged, they say. Not by stuffing ballot boxes or by impersonations, they say. In that they accept that voting has been legitimate, fair and unhindered, in the main. They charge, however, that counting was unfair or that there has been a fraud at the point of computer data entry or later.

The accusation is not concrete. It’s a wild allegation with no evidence. None of the spokespersons for the Opposition - neither the NDF candidate Sarath Fonseka, nor the Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe has categorically described the fraud. The JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe has just called it gil maal, the meaning of which only he could tell. Mangala Samaraweera, a spokesperson for Fonseka has called it the first ever computer election fraud in the world.

A few comments would be sufficient to dispel any doubts regarding the authenticity of the election verdict.

First, just consider the majority. It’s a staggering 1.8 million votes. To deny victory to the opponent the fraud must amount to rigging double that number, which amounts to 3.6 million votes. This is a task humanly impossible, given the peaceful and incident free nature of the poll.

Next, the counting was done manually in the presence of counting agents of polls candidates. A copy of the final result at each counting centre was made available to the counting agents of the principal candidates. The entire process of counting was transparent and fool-proof. This has been the practice throughout the Sri Lankan elections.

In case of doubt, one has only to check the hard copies of the results at the counting centres with the results announced officially by the Elections Commissioner. This could be done by filing an election petition in Courts.

Thus there is also a remedy in case of doubt. Simply shouting from platforms that the election is rigged does not hold though it may help to persuade the gullible and the naive, both locally and abroad to believe it.

Let us have a retrospective glance at some results. Sarath Fonseka received more votes than Mahinda Rajapaksa in certain polling divisions, including those in the North, East, Central and Colombo. In some of them the majorities he received was greater than 25,000 or 50,000. In the North the majority exceeded 30, 40 or even 60 percentage wise.

Surely, if the elections were rigged such high majorities were out of the question. With the low percentages polled it would have been a comparatively easy exercise to rig the vote, going by some early experiences, especially the District Development Council in Jaffna during the J. R. Jayewardene era. However, the ruling alliance has to concede defeat there. Is that a sign of a rigged election?

It’s best for the Opposition to accept the election verdict in humility. There is nothing to worry. Fonseka, as a novice could take pride in the fact that he received roughly 40 percent of the vote. This is a good base for him to proceed further, instead wailing like a child.

What has happened is that out of political inexperience he mistook the swing of the electorate. He imagined a swing in his favour.

It was partly due to the high media publicity for his campaign and the efforts of his erstwhile supporters to take the same crowd round the rallies and put up a huge audience when he gets up on stage. As the result showed the swing has been in the Opposite direction. That is why President Mahinda Rajapaksa could increase his 2005 vote by 7.59 percentage points from 50.29 to 57.88 percent.

What is tragic is that this campaign has the potential of marring the good name of the country. Sri Lanka’s detractors are already using it to sully the country’s image. The Asian Human Rights Commission, a biased body with a dubious track record has already questioned whether Sri Lanka could conduct a free and fair poll.

The voters would soon get another chance to rebuff these detractors and their local lackeys and fifth columnists at the forthcoming general election.

Ten years after Seattle - Part II :

River for Jaffna project to boost cultivation

Three River projects from different eras and different global locations: 1. A River for Jaffna in modern Sri Lanka; 2. The River Arno project in late medieval Italy; and 3. Parakrama Sagara including Koththabadhanijjara in early medieval Sri Lanka. The article deals with three river projects starting with the River for Jaffna, that was taken up for early implementation on the orders of President Mahinda Rajapaksa even before the conflict in the Vanni was concluded.

Full Story

Journey-prints are found in feet, did you know?

The Morning Inspection - Malinda

We’ve always had them and we have always taken them for granted, even though we have all heard that line about complaining about the lack of shoes until one sees someone without feet. Interesting, isn’t it? We talk of journeys, we talk of footprints, but who ever thinks of or writes about feet? Until about four years ago I didn’t know there was a word called pedicure, didn’t know about foot massages or Podiatry.

Full Story

Short memory spans and nation building

It is done and over with. People have given their verdict. Like it was said by you, there is no time to waste. Victory and its celebration settle to be no more than memories within a few months, if not weeks. It only brings momentary joy and feelings of a high. Most of the time they turn sour so early, it surprises the skeptics and frustrates the optimists. We witnessed the thirty-year reign of terror of the LTTE and a hard fought war ending and all of us coming together under our national flag.

Full Story

 

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