The Promise To Work Together After Elections

By Jehan Perera -September 23, 2013 

Jehan Perera

The unexpectedly large scale of the defeat suffered by the government at the Northern Provincial Council elections held last Saturday is an indication of how inaccurate it was in assessing the mood of the electorate in the former war-zone of the North.  The government cultivated the belief that economic development and the self-interest of individuals would outweigh their desire for political rights.  With its ability to raise large loans from the international community and deliver economic benefits, the government had the decisive advantage over the opposition in that respect.  Prior to the election, government leaders went around the North gifting consumer durables and promising jobs for the unemployed.  One government candidate even published advertisements in newspapers boasting of his ability to provide employment opportunities.  Just prior to the election, the President opened the newest railway station in the former LTTE capital of Kilinochchi on the new railway lines being built to replace those destroyed in the war.

However, the outcome of the elections shows once again that political rights do matter more than anything else to the people of the North.  It is likely that the same feelings pervade the Tamil people living in the East, but as they are not in a majority in that province, the numerical strength to show that desire in elections is not available to them.  There is no question that economic well being matters to the people of the North and East, and is a priority to them.  But there is no getting away from the issue of establishing a system of power-sharing, in which the power to make decisions affecting their lives is provided to the representatives of the Tamil people.   Of course, they, like every other community have to be aware that the country is a plural and multi ethnic one, and that decisions need to be arrived at with due sensitivity to that reality, and even giving deference to it. The devolution of powers provided to the provincial councils under the 13th Amendment is the option that was adopted in 1987 during the time of war.  It needs to be revised and improved upon now that there is peace.

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SAARC Monitors ‘Dismayed’ About Fake Uthayan Publication

September 24, 2013

The SAARC Election monitors who oversaw Saturday’s Northern Provincial Council election said they were dismayed at the falsified special edition of the popular Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna and the continued publicity granted to that fake edition by a television operator.

Fake Uthayan

Addressing a press conference in Colombo yesterday Head of the SAARC Election monitoring mission N. Gopalswami who is also a former Elections Commissioner of India said that the observers had noted that no action was taken by the authorities to stop the broadcast.

The ‘fake’ Uthayan newspaper that was delivered before the newspaper’s morning edition was circulated to its subscribers and news stands and repeatedly displayed and broadcast on the Government affiliated DAN TV broadcast in the North and run by the LTTE’s former spokesman Daya Master.

The head of the SAARC observer mission said that the violation was a main example of the misuse of the press on polling day.

The SAARC monitors also said they were dismayed by the involvement of the armed forces in incidents of polls related violence, specifically the attack on the home of then TNA candidate, Ananthi Sasitharan the day before the poll.