violence and ‘murder’ verdict

Apart from howling and jeering, there is a well-planned hate-campaign against President Sirisena’s supporters by those who backed Rajapaksa’s candidacy.

Mud-slinging posters have already been circulated against them and social media campaigns have been launched urging UPFA voters not to vote for those who support President Sirisena. Even party seniors such as S.B. Dissanayake and Duminda Dissanayake are at the receiving end of this venomous intra-party hate campaign.

With a section of Sirisena supporters aligning themselves with the UNP-led alliance, most of the pro-Sirisena candidates who remain in the UPFA face a serious risk at the Parliamentary election. As the UPFA campaigning is pandering more to pro-Rajapaksa sentiments among the UPFA voters, there is a possibility that certain candidates supporting President Sirisena may be left out of the picture.

Kneeling and dealing

This hate campaign and ground pressures compelled some UPFA candidates - who were previously supporters of President Sirisena - to kneel at the feet of Rajapaksa and publicly express their support to him during political rallies of the UPFA. By doing so, they assume that they will have the sympathy of UPFA supporters campaigning for Rajapaksa.

Among them was Janaka Bandara Tennakoon who, at one point, cried during a party meeting while explaining the state of affairs in the party under the watch of the Rajapaksa family. Some UPFA candidates, who earlier accepted ministerial portfolios from President Sirisena, are now shedding their positions one by one in a bid to draw more support from the UPFA voters.

The latest development in this regard was former Deputy Minister Shantha Bandara’s resignation from his position. It will be interesting to see whether such moves taking place just two weeks away from the Parliamentary election will make a considerable impact on the UPFA voters. However, candidates such as S.B. Dissanayake, Duminda Dissanayake and Prasanna Solangaarachchi have their own strong vote banks in their respective electorates. S. B. Dissanayake, in his 26-year career in national politics, has got elected to Parliament from both mainstream parties. Duminda Dissanayake, the son of former Chief Minister Berty Premalal Dissanayake, is a force to reckon with in the North Central province and he recently received appointment as the SLFP Organizer of the Kalawewa electorate, a position held by his father for many years.

Prasanna Solangarachchi, a relatively newcomer to national politics, is hugely popular in his electorate and he will, to a certain extent, benefit by the exclusion of former Parliamentarian Duminda Silva. He was also appointed as the SLFP Co-organizer of the Avissawella electorate by the President last week. In this context, the pro-Rajapaksa faction is unlikely to be able to completely annihilate their ‘within-the-ramparts’ opponents at the Parliamentary election.

Sirisena’s war

Meanwhile, President Sirisena, on Friday, made an interesting move by making a public appearance at an election rally organized by Duminda Dissanayake in the Anuradhapura district. Before attending the election meeting, the President took part in some religious activities at Kalawewa, at the Vijithapura Raja Maha Vihara. He was accompanied by Duminda Dissanayake and North Central Province Chief Minister Peshala Jayaratne. Some other prominent Parliamentarians representing the Anuradhapura district dodged President Sirisena’s event.

President Sirisena was careful not to make any public speech at Dissanayake’s rally. The President appeared on the stage, waved at supporters and gave them the indication that his support lay with the former Minister who stepped out of the Rajapaksa administration alongside him. Dissanayake, who did not enter into an electoral agreement with the UNP-led alliance boycotted the UPFA inaugural rally in Anuradhapura chaired by former President Rajapaksa.

The President’s unexpected appearance at Duminda Dissanayake’s election meeting and recent appointments of SLFP organizers shows that the SLFP Chairman is yet in control of the party and hopes to strengthen his own team while former President Rajapaksa, who heads the SLFP election operations committee, is hell-bent on promoting his supporters. The President’s direct involvement, in all probability, will take the internecine battle in the SLFP to a whole new level.

President Sirisena’s other battlefront is the party’s Central Committee. A group of party seniors, attempted to convene an urgent Central Committee meeting of the party after the President’s statement on July 14 on the UPFA nominations. It was widely speculated that a group of pro-Rajapaksa Central Committee members were planning to move a motion against President Sirisena at the party Central Committee, seeking to remove him from his position as the party Chairman.

It is still doubtful whether the President has, in the few months since toppling Rajapaksa, been able to build the majority support of the Central Committee, the apex decision making body of the SLFP. It was in this context that the President decided to cancel the Central Committee meeting convened by the General Secretary, using the powers vested in him by the party constitution.

A day after the move, Prasanna Solangaarachchi, a Central Committee member and a loyalist of President Sirisena, obtained an enjoining order from the Colombo District Court, preventing the party General Secretary from convening the committee without the party Chairman’s approval. Last week, the enjoining order was further extended by Colombo District Court judge Harsha Sethunga who ordered it be maintained till August 7. It is now becoming clear that President Sirisena is not inclined to convene the Central Committee until the end of the election. In the event of a United National Front victory, the President will allow those who entered into an electoral agreement with the UNP to re-join the party, just as the SLFP did after the last Presidential election.

Following their re-entry, there is likely to be a major re-shuffle in the party to remove Rajapaksa’s influence from the SLFP. Even if the pro-Rajapaksa faction makes electoral gains in terms of parliamentary seats, Rajapaksa himself will not be in a position to ascend to the Prime Minister’s position without President Sirisena’s consent. Irrespective of the outcome of the Parliamentary election, President Sirisena is yet committed to his original agreement with the UNP and his other allies to form a ‘national government’ with the support of a section of UPFA MPs.

Thajudeen ‘murder’ verdict sends ripples

Another key issue sending ripples across the country’s political circles at this point is rugby player Wassim Thajudeen’s ‘murder’ in mid-2012.

Thajudeen, a well-known rugby player, represented S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, from 2001 to 2003. He then turned out for Havelock’s SC during the 2005 season where he played in the position of wing three quarter. He was voted the Most Popular Ruggerite of the Year at the Caltex Observer Touchdown Rugby Quiz awards in 2009. He was once considered for captaincy of the national Rugby team due to his performance on the field but then suddenly died in a car accident.

In May, 2012, Thajudeen was found dead under mysterious circumstances near the Shalika grounds, Narahenpita in Colombo. The police had, at the time, said that Thajudeen was driving to the airport and had lost control of his car and crashed into the wall of Shalika Grounds on Park Road, Narahenpita, and that his vehicle had exploded within seconds of the crash. However, Thajudeen’s wallet was later recovered 1.5 km away from the place where the alleged accident took place. It sparked serious doubts over the rugby player’s death.

Although fingers were pointed at a VVIP son over the murder at that point, there was no substantial evidence to prove any such allegations.

The news media and relevant officials brushed the incident under the carpet claiming it was merely an accident and the car had caught fire after the accident. Even some family members of Thajudeen said they were certain that it was an accident and they did not want to pursue the matter further.However, after the new government came to power in January, this year, Police decided to recommence investigations into

Facts and circumstantial evidence

Thajudeen’s death as there were grounds for suspicion. The regime change in January had taken off external pressures on the investigation. As a result, in February this year, the Criminal Investigations Department launched fresh investigations on Thajudeen’s murder. The investigations were based on facts and circumstantial evidence. When the CID’s findings were suggestive of a murder, the investigation was handed over to the Homicide Unit of the CID to conduct further inquiries. The Homicide Unit is one of the most advanced investigative units within the CID and the officers attached to it are experts in their field of forensics. The CID’s suspicions, according to its sources, are based on the contradictions between the post-mortem report and the Government Analyst’s report on the same death. According to the post-mortem report carbon monoxide had been found in the body of the rugby player found dead in his car. However, the Government Analyst’s report on the death had stated otherwise. The CID, at this point, sought the Attorney General Department’s advice on proceeding with contradictory post mortem and Government Analyst reports. At the same time, the CID also sought the Magistrate Court’s permission to obtain Thajudeen’s telephone records from the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) and Dialog Axiata.

However, filing an affidavit before court early this month, Dialog Axiata said it was unable to provide telephone records of Wasim Thajudeen to the CID due to technical and practical difficulties. The company said it usually keeps records of telephone calls for a duration of three months.Following this development, Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris asked the company to assist the investigations in whatever capacity possible. However, the CID proceeded with its inquiries amidst all these difficulties and four weeks later submitted its findings before court.

The CID informed the Colombo Additional Magistrate last week that Thajudeen’s death was not an accident but murder. It was a major revelation with regard to the rugby player’s mysterious death.The death had been caused by a blow on his neck by a circular object and there were signs prior to his death that he had been brutally tortured, the CID told court. Moreover Thajudeen’s teeth had been broken and the ribs and thigh bones were also damaged. In addition, his legs had been cut with a broken glass.

After considering the CID’s findings, the court ordered Judicial Medical Officer Ananda Samarasekara to submit the investigation report with regard to Wasim Thajudeen’s death on September 10. He also ordered the JMO to get legal advice and collect all relevant evidence according to strict legal procedure. Now, it is widely speculated that the rugby player’s body would be exhumed as part of further investigations on the matter. Legal sources say that the outcome of this case will be totally dependent on the inquiry conducted by the JMO. UPFA speakers, during election rallies, jumped the gun last week stating Thajudeen’s case had re-surfaced ahead of the Parliamentary election. By making such claims, they indicated that there was some link between his murder and some key figure in the party’s election campaign. So far, no political figure has been officially linked by the CID to Thajudeen’s death and there is no reason for any political camp to get over-excited about the case. However, investigators involved in the inquiry expressed confidence that the CID would be able to find out the names of those who committed the murder in the near future.

Although Thajudeen’s case has still not revealed the name of any political figure, there are several investigations that the UPFA should be worried about.

FCID closing in

Even as the parliamentary elections reach their climax, tension runs high among some politicians of the former regime, currently in the thick of the campaign – due to the FCID probes. After months of hard work, the Police Financial Crimes Division has finalized its work on some 20 large-scale financial scams that occurred during the previous government.

Several key members of the UPFA camp, especially some ardent supporters of former President Rajapaksa, are under investigations by the FCID and Police Special Investigations Unit over allegations levelled against them.