Politics of the May Day turnout 

"Those who know how far Baseline Road is from the Lalith Athulathmudali grounds will have some difficulty in believing that all four lanes of Baseline Road were a sea of heads as far as the eye could see."

By C. A. Chandraprema-2016, 7:33 pm

May Day this year was different to any previous May Day that we can remember, because this became a test of strength among the contending political formations in the country. Perhaps this ‘test of strength’ element may have been present at previous May Days as well, but it was never so pronounced. On the one side was the government formed for the first time by both the main political parties - the UNP and the SLFP. On the other side was the Joint Opposition made up of several minor parties and about four dozen UPFA parliamentarians most of whom are still representatives of the bifurcated SLFP. It was a lopsided test of strength as the Joint Opposition still does not have a legal standing as a political party and draconian measures were taken by the SLFP in the run up to May Day to prevent their members from attending the Kirullapone rally. Two sitting parliamentarians Geetha Kumarasinghe and Salinda Dissanayake were removed from their SLFP electoral organiserships as a warning to those who wanted to go to Kirullapone.

The SLFP held its May Day in Galle with the publicly stated objective of preventing their members from going from the SLFP rally to the Kirullapone rally in a replay of what happened last year. Holding the rally as far away from Kirullapone was the SLFP’s method of preventing ‘leakage’. However on May Day, it became clear that political polarisation takes place as anti-government and pro-government and not by the names and symbols of political parties. If the two main political parties are serving in a government, it is taken as one government regardless of the rhetoric about being different. In politics there can be no hunting with the hounds and running with the hare at the same time. This writer went around to the UNP rally at Campbell Park, the JVP rally at BRC grounds and the Kirullapone rally of the Joint Opposition to observe the rallies at their peak between 4.30 and 5.30 pm on May Day.

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