Post election scenario - a glimpse
by Jalita WIJEYEKDOM
The sixth Parliament of the 1978 Constitution, was dissolved on
February 10, and the General Election was held on April 8, 2010. There
was a period of nearly two months for the candidates to conduct their
election campaigns and all candidates were heavily involved and did
their utmost to emerge victorious.
For the 196 slots in Parliament, over 7,000 candidates contested
under registered parties and Independent groups. All the sitting
Parliamentarians contested except a very few who were nominated to the
National List. The only Parliamentarian who stepped down from politics
due to ill health was Agriculture Minister Hemakumara Nanayakkara.
Though it was a daunting task for the dissident UNPers to contest under
the UPFA ticket most of them secured their seats, some with comfortable
majority votes while a few others were not successful.
Delicate issue
Now that the election is over and a large number of people concerned
was deeply engaged in the after election process as to how future
planning should be done to achieve the desired goals.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the busiest and most concerned man of
all. He was heavily involved with his close confidents in choosing his
Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers. He knew fully well that a
number of senior members in the party were eyeing the prestigious
position of Prime Minister while other seasoned parliamentarians who
scored higher numbers of preferential votes and who command public
confidence and the respect of party members were also targeting it.
So
it was a very delicate issue for the President to handle although it was
his sole prerogative to appoint the PM. The President handled the
situation very diplomatically and appointed the most senior member of
the SLFP, the vociferous speaker D.M. Jayaratne as the Prime Minister
without hurting the feelings of other aspirants. D.M. Jayaratne was
overjoyed with the achievement and still celebrating it saying it was a
long over due victory.
Cabinet pruned
According to the election manifesto the Cabinet had to be pruned to
minimise the colossal amounts of funds spent during the last regime to
divert it for national development.
Election results indicate that except for four Cabinet Ministers,
five non Cabinet Ministers and five Deputy Ministers, all the other
ministers have retained their seats in Parliament along with a group of
newcomers. All the former ministers anticipated Ministerial portfolios.
Some of them started making representations to influence the President
through Mahanayake Theras and other religious leaders to retain their
positions.
National List slot
One prominent Cabinet Minister who lost at the election was trying
all possible means, even through diplomatic missions to get himself
appointed through the National List and retain his all important
portfolio proclaiming that he was the most suitable person to handle the
job.
Most of these ministers spent huge sums of money in their election
campaigns and now are in a quandary as to what their future would be and
perhaps with less important ministries. May be they have not spent out
of their own pockets but by some businessmen who had been immensely
benefited by them. So these businessmen in return expect this ministers
to look after their interests in future too.
In the run up to the election campaign we could see that some
affluent ministers tried various new election techniques to garner
higher number of preferential votes in their respective districts.
It is learnt that some affluent candidates have simply walked into
the banks and supermarkets where their area people had come to settle
their amenities bills and to purchase new year requirements, had
collected all their invoices and paid out of candidate’s own pocket and
handed over the paid receipts to the respective people without
scrutinizing their party affiliations.
This type of generous gesture and magnanimous attitude of the
particular candidate had amply paid dividends in return when the final
election results were announced in the district.
Unlike in the good old days politics at present has become a very
lucrative profession and that may be the reason for people to spend so
much money to win elections. In addition to the powers vested on them by
way of ministerial positions, the privileges enjoyed by them are even
more attractive. Defeated ministers must be extremely worried when they
think of the time they spent while in office.
When we analyse the election results, it is quite evident that the
voters in some districts have rejected their previous representatives
who did not live up to their expectations.
As usual some defeated contestants came out with lame excuses such as
vote rigging and miscalculations of preferences or poor voter turnout at
the elections which resulted in their poor performances. This applies
equally to candidates of the opposition and the government.
New year dawns
With the conclusion of the 2010 General Election the Sinhala and
Hindu New Year dawned and the whole country celebrated it on a grand
scale since it was the first New Year to be celebrated throughout the
island with the eradication of terrorism after 30 years. Successful
candidates at the election celebrated the New Year in an unprecedented
degree of enjoyment with their family members and friends, colleagues
and party supporters.
UNF in chaos
In the meantime, the opposition leader is confronted with a number of
new problems and challenges in addition to the humiliating defeat
suffered by the party at the election. Two Tamil constituent partners of
the opposition alliance have already left the alliance blaming the
leadership for not adhering to the agreement in allocating National List
slots.
Assistant leader of the party Rukman Senanayake who represented the
Kegalle district, didn’t contest the last election and his name was in
the UNP National List. But he has not been accommodated in the nine
member list by the party. Therefore, he quit the party and resigned from
all positions held with immediate effect. Some of the prominent district
leaders have already started firing missiles at the leadership over the
very poor performance at the elections.
A large number of young UNP Provincial Councillors contested the
elections from their districts and only a handful of them were able to
occupy seats in Parliament. They also had to spend huge amounts of money
in the run up to the election and some of them who didn’t have affluent
people to finance their campaigns, have gone to the extent of disposing
some of their properties and also even mortgaging their ancestral
houses. With all that some have marginally lost the election and they
are facing utter disappointment.
Two artists and a sportswoman who contested the election under the
umbrella of UPFA from Galle and Kegalle districts had not been able to
secure seats in the Parliament.
All three of them openly accuse the other elected members in the
district for robbing their preferential votes through computer gimmicks.
They make statements to the media and make mockery of the situation
without paying scan respect to the party policies and principles.
With the announcement of the new Cabinet few members are extremely
happy with their new portfolios while some others are frustrated with
what they have got. Some of them who had held better ministries during
the last regime have got deputy minister posts this time and now in a
quandary as to why they were treated poorly by the President after
having done all the spade work to achieve near two third majority.
Left wing camp
It has been also observed that certain politicians who had been
relegated to the political wilderness for long periods, have bounced
back at the last General Election contesting under the UPFA umbrella.
These left wing five party camp has already started claiming that their
ideology could be once again disseminated and educate the public and go
forward as the JVP has betrayed the struggle.
The JVP has suffered the greatest humiliation at the last elections
and moreover some of their previous main bases had been reduced to
nothing with the recent outcome. But the party theoreticians claim
boldly that they have not personally lost anything but the voters have
lost a lot of things by not electing the watchdogs of the nation to
protect their rights in the supreme legislature.
Some minority community leaders who overestimated themselves and
virtually challenged the major party leaders were also rejected by the
people at the elections.
Now that the election is over the Prime Minister and the Cabinet
appointed, it is the responsibility of all politicians to work in
harmony for peace and prosperity to guarantee a brighter future for the
country.
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