Rule by ballot after years of rule by bullet begins in North

The Nation
At the elections held yesterday to 65 local government bodies which had to be postponed due to election petitions, the government had thrown its full weight behind its propaganda campaign in the North. A large number of UPFA Ministers and MPs had been vigorously campaigning in the province for several weeks in support of the party candidates in the running for 16 local bodies in Jaffna district and three bodies in Kilinochchi district.

At the inception of the UPFA campaign, the situation in the North appeared unfavourable for the government. However, a few days later signs of improvement in the prospects for the government began to appear. Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa perhaps made the biggest contribution to the UPFA campaign addressing no less than 75 propaganda meetings covering 14 local authority areas. On one occasion he stuck to the campaign trail for than five consecutive days. Minister Rajapaksa who had been in the thick of development activity in the North under the Uturu Vasanthaya programme, in fact, was no stranger to the people in the North.
A group of young UPFA MPs led by Namal Rajapaksa too campaigned in Kilinochchi in the North for the government for about three weeks. They closely moved with the youth in the district and gave an attentive ear to their problems. President Mahinda Rajapaksa who knew the importance of his presence in the North at the psychological moment made it a point to spend three days in Jaffna attending a series of public functions and propaganda meetings. A shrewd politician, the President took advantage of these opportunities to move with the people and give an attentive ear to their grievances and viewpoints. Among the other government heavyweights who took the campaign trail in the North are Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, Ministers Susil Premajayantha, Tissa Karaliyadda, Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Pavithra Wanniarachchi. The JHU, LSSP, CP and CWC leaders were conspicuous by their absence in the UPFA campaign trail in the North. No Senior Minister of the government either made his presence felt in the election campaign. In fact, the SLFP alone had born the brunt of the campaign.
UNP gave way for TNA?
Another significant feature that marked the electioneering in the North is the failure on the part of the UNP to evince any noteworthy interest in it. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who addressed a series of party rallies in Kaduwela, Kegalle and Kandy failed to visit the North. In fact, it was UNP’s Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya who had been entrusted with the task of leading the party’s election campaign. However, Jayasuriya and party leaders confined their campaigning to the South, leaving the burden of directing the party’s electioneering in the North on the shoulders of UNP’s sole MP from the North Ms. Vijayakala Maheswaran. Meanwhile, rumours making rounds in political circles said that the UNP leadership kept away from the arena in the North in a move of tacit support to the TNA.
The JVP too had fielded candidates to several local bodies in the North. The party leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, Tilvin Silva and Ramalingam Chadrasekeran who spearheaded the campaign participated in house to house canvassing, but did not address any propaganda meetings.

TNA campaign
The TNA, the main Tamil political party did not hold large propaganda rallies. They used leaflets, posters and newspapers as the main channels for reaching the voters. Meanwhile, they had distributed CD disks containing the Channel 4 documentary `The Killing Fields’ among the people. Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran, S. Adakkalainathan and S. Saravanapavan campaigned for the TNA under the direction of Trincomalee-based party leader R. Sampanthan.
People in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu used their franchise for the first time after 29 years. Elections were held in Jaffna even after the war broke out. However, no elections were held in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu as these areas were under the direct control of the LTTE. Therefore, electors in the 35-40 age groups in these districts used their vote for the first time in their life time. Incidentally it is a bizarre coincidence that the elections to the local bodies had fallen on July 23 for the ` Black July’ in 1983 too began on a July 23. And it is a quirk of irony that these areas which came under `the rule by bullet’ after the Black July rioting has come under `the rule by ballot’ after 29 years!
Yesterday’s elections in the North were based on electoral registers for 2010. This means that the names of about 300,000 electors included in the previous registers do not appear in the new registers. Those who have gone abroad left their original homes and killed in the war account for the voters who have gone off the registers. The number of electors qualified to vote at the elections to 16 local bodies at yesterday’s ballot is 374,340. According to the new registers the number of electors for the three local bodies in Kilinochchi is 61,217 and the corresponding figure for Thunukkai Pradeshiya Sabha in Mullaitivu is 5,227. Election monitors anticipated a low turnout at the polls given the disinterest shown by the people.
Intra-party rivalry mars Kaduwela
Among the local bodies at stake in the South where keen contests were expected are Akurana and Kaduwela Pradeshiya Sabhas. The UNP which held the Akurana Pradeshiya Sabha fought hard to retain it at this election. Both UPFA and the SLMC too were in the fray at Akurana. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya and a number of other UNP front-liners campaigned heavily at Akurana.

The SLMC, a constituent of the UPFA coalition went it alone at this election at Akurana. SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem led the party campaign there. The UPFA’ electioneering was led by Deputy Minister Faisar Mustapha. There were clashes between UNP and UPFA supporters at Akurana in the run up to the elections.
The UPFA campaigning at Kaduwela was seriously marred by intra-party rivalry. There were three aspirants to the chairmanship of this recently upgraded Urban Council They were former chairman G.H. Buddhadasa, Buddhika Jayalal and Manoj Bethmage. However, the main rivals were Buddhadasa and Jayalal and the latter had the backing of Minister Wimal Weerawansa. The third hopeful for the chair of the Council was Manoj Bethmage who functioned as a private secretary to the former Western Province Minister Hector Bethmage. Bethmage was supported by Minister Susil Premajayantha.
The raging rivalry between the two main aspirants for the chair had led to clashes between their supporters. Bethmage and several other candidates in the fray there had appealed to the IGP to take measures to put an end to the thuggary at Kaduwela. Meanwhile, former chairman Buddhadasa had complained that Thalangama and Aturugiriya Police were being partial to Minister Wimal Weerawansa.
The UNP and the JVP too had fielded candidates for Kaduwela Urban Council. The UNP’s campaigning was hardly visible there. Only one or two UNP candidates appeared to have taken campaigning seriously. As for the JVP, they seemed to have given up electioneering for reasons best known to them.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa had earlier declared that the criterion for selecting new heads of local bodies is not the number of preference votes polled, but the experience and the efficiency of the aspirants concerned.
The fact that the government had concentrated more on the 19 local bodies in the North than on the 46 in the South had drawn the special attention of both political and diplomatic circles in the country. Several officials from the British High Commission and the US embassy in Colombo visited Jaffna to observe the situation there when the electioneering was in full swing. The Indian Consulate in Jaffna too evinced a keen interest in the election-related activity and incidents in the run up to the elections.
Govt. - TNA talks 
The TNA has by now held several rounds of talks with the government in a bid to find a solution to the North- East problem. Incidentally the TNA is the Tamil party that commands the highest number of seats in Parliament. Therefore, they claim that they are sole representative of the Tamil people in the country. While India supports the TNA, the latter enjoys the full patronage of the Tamil Diaspora as well.
The government wants to work out a solution to the national problem in consultation with all Tamil political parties, not with the TNA alone. Therefore, the government used its maximum clout to win more local bodies than the TNA at these elections. If the government did win more local bodies in the North, it could offer a solution to the national problem from a position of strength. Besides, a victory at these elections could be a stepping stone for the government to win the Northern provincial Council as well.
Devananda pulls his weight
Minister Douglas Devananda too pulled his full weight at these elections, as a prerequisite for becoming the Northern Chief Minister. He had already announced his intention to come forward as a Chief Ministerial candidate. Therefore, the outcome of the elections in the North will be a factor decisive for Minister Devananda’s political future.
TNA to prove its credentials
The TNA had set much store by a possible victory at yesterday’s elections because it is the only the way by which they could prove their credentials as the only credible representative of the Tamil community in the North and East before the Tamils as well as the Tamil Diaspora. Now that the elections are over, we will know within the next hours whether the TNA has achieved their goal.
Three playback singers scared away
The ceremony held last Wednesday to mark the laying of the foundation stone for the proposed sports stadium complex at Kilinochchi presided over by President Rajapaksa was followed by a `musical evening’ featured by popular artistes. The organisers had invited three popular singers from South India Mana, Krish and Suchitra to participate in the event.
Accordingly, the three singers had arrived at the International Bandaranaike Airport, Katunayake on Wednesday morning. They were to be airlifted to Kilinochchi. Pending transport arrangements, the singing trio was escorted to a nearby hotel. While relaxing at the hotel, the three artistes had received telephone calls from South India asking them not to proceed to Kilinochchi to perform at the concert and to immediately return home. The telephone calls had been reportedly made under the direction of extremist Tamil Nadu politicians like Vaiko and Nedumaran. Callers from Tamil Nadu had faulted the three Tamil artistes for visiting Sri Lanka “to sing for a government persecuting the Tamil community there.” They had also threatened the three artistes that if they failed to return by the next available flight they would have to face dire consequences back at home. Thus frightened out of their wits the three had taken the next flight to Chennai.
The racialist artistes in Tamil Nadu had imposed a ban on the popular South Indian actress Bhatia Tamanna who was recently in Sri Lanka to act in a film being shot here.
High Commissioner calls on Jeyalalithaa
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka High Commissioner in New Delhi Prasad Kariyawasam had called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister in Chennai on Thursday.
High Commissioner Kariyawasam who was on a goodwill mission had met Jeyalalitha at the office of the Chief Minister at St. George Place, Chennai. Our Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai Vadivel Krishnamoorthy had been associated with Kariyawasam at this meeting with Jeyalalitha. High Commissioner on this occasion had congratulated Jayalathaa and conveyed to her the good wishes of the Sri Lankan government.
The High Commissioner briefed the Chief Minister on the progress made in resettling the war-displaced refugees quoting authentic figures. He had further explained that of the 11,000 LTTE cadres taken prisoner during the war 8,000 had already been released after being rehabilitated. He had added that the remaining 3,000 would be released shortly.
Chief Minister Jeyalalithaa had charged that Sri Lanka Navy was harassing the Indian fishermen. In response, Kariyawasam had pointed that a number of Sri Lankan fishermen arrested by the Indian coast guard too were being held there. He had said that some durable arrangement has to be made to settle this recurring issue for good through a common approach by the two governments. Jeyalalithaa had endorsed this proposal.
High Commissioner Kariyawasam had invited Chief Minister Jeyalalithaa to Sri Lanka for a first-hand study of the situation in the North. If she were too busy, even a delegation of legislators form the Tamil Nadu State Assembly was quite welcome, he had said.
Later during an interview with the BBC High Commissioner Kariyawasam had said that there was no reference made to the Darusman report or Channel 4 video `The Killing Fields’ during the talks with Jeyalalithaa.
Muslim organisations up in arms
The Muslim organisations are now up in arms against a circular sent out to the Divisional Secretaries by the Commissioner General for Registration of Persons saying that photos of persons taken with headgear on for National Identity Cards are not accepted and only Muslim clerics wearing the scarf and Muslim schoolchildren wearing the hijab are exempted from this requirement.
All Island Jamiyyathul Ulama Association and several other Muslim organisations who met last week to discuss the issue had decided to send a memoranda to the President, Minister for Muslim Affairs and Muslim dignitaries expressing their vehement protest against the Commissioner General’s ruling.
These organisations have pointed out that a person wearing headgear that does not cover the two ears could be easily identified and photographs with such headgear on had been allowed earlier.
UNP exploits the issue
The UNP had used this controversy over the headgear for National Identity Card an election issue during their campaigning at the local government polls.
Addressing an election rally in a predominantly Muslim area in Kuliyapitiya Western PC member Mujibar Rahuman said that the government’s decision relating to the headgear was an insult to the Muslim community. He recalled that during the colonial era that a court of law ordered a Muslim who appeared there with a Fez Cap on to remove it. However, the aggrieved Muslim appealed to the Supreme Court against the order of the low court and the Supreme Court ruled a Muslim could appear anywhere with his headgear on.
Reacting to the Muslim protests, a Muslim Minister remarked that certain officials who take decisions without concern for the religious susceptibilities of people cause embarrassment to the government. He promised to bring this matter to the notice of the President.