DailyMirror – Editorial
What made it so easy to guess as to whose supporters put up posters on the vehicle of an Assistant Commissioner of Elections? After all altogether nine ministers contest parliamentary elections and when one says ‘supporters of a minister’ it could be anyone barring those who opt for poster-less campaigns.
Call him Mr. extravagant or Mr. faux pas he leaves behind the trade mark in every blunder. Doing the wrong unashamedly, be it busting public money for family jaunts or looking for jobs for his children he does it like no other. With absolutely no regard to accepted standards or decorum he really behaves like somebody from an alien land.
It would be interesting to know what the police are going to do about the episode now that Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake has lodged a complaint with them about the incident.
One good thing about April 8 polls is that it has exposed the dodgy elements, especially the extent to which they would go to retain power, as never before. In Colombo by pitting nine ministers against each other the UPFA has in no uncertain terms helped the electorate realize that solidarity is a mere illusion. Mammoth efforts are being made by each candidate to create the impression that he is the hot favourite of the President in a puerile attempt to ride on the wave of popularity of the president. Given the cut-throat competition displayed by certain ministers and their moves to block fellow ministers campaigning in their ‘territory’ one could only say that it is a miracle the manner they have remained as one group so far.
Though not with the same intensity, the competition between two UNP candidates in the Kurunegala district and another two in Matara too had been showcasing the ugly side of the preferential vote system. They have largely been tussles between the popular candidate and one preferred by the party leadership.
As for violence, forty eight incidents of assault have been reported and interestingly majority of them had been cases of intra-party rivalry by the UPFA. Kandy where even President Mahinda Rajapaksa too became a witness to some unpleasant incidents has become a synonym for election violence with the latest seeing eight UPFA supporters being hospitalized on Tuesday in Gampola following a clash between the activists of two UPFA strongmen.
There’s enough rhetoric that this is the last election to be held under the preferential voting system. One hopes that at least this promise will be kept by the ones that matter and save the resources and the sanity of the electorate.