Amidst uncertainty over the fate of the local council elections, political parties and candidates say they are continuing with their electoral campaigns, though they concede that the failure to hold the polls as scheduled has caused issues.
While the Election Commission (EC) confirmed on Friday that District Returning Officers had issued gazette notifications to hold the local government election on April 25, political parties and candidates note that a lot can change between now and that date.
Postal voting is now scheduled to be held from March 28 to 31. The EC said the Government Printer had agreed to complete the printing of postal ballots within five days and the polling-booth ballots within 20-25 days.
Amid these developments, campaigning is continuing at the ground level for the upcoming elections.
The campaign of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has not been negatively affected by the postponement of the election thus far, claimed former MP Mujibur Rahuman, who is contesting as the party’s mayoral candidate for Colombo.
The SJB is continuing to hold election meetings. Opposition and SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa is a frequent attendee at many of these meetings.
Mr. Rahuman hit out at President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the government, claiming there was a continued attempt to put off the elections by any means.
“Some government MPs are claiming that the Supreme Court’s interim order — directing the Treasury Secretary and the Attorney General not to withhold funds earmarked for the election — is a breach of privilege. In reality, it is the President as Finance Minister who is breaching MPs’ privileges by withholding funds passed by Parliament to conduct the election,” he said.
Government officials such as the Treasury Secretary were bound to act on orders issued by the apex court of the land, Mr. Rahuman emphasised.
The National People’s Power (NPP) is also continuing with its election campaign. But NPP Parliamentarian and Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath said it was difficult to proceed with campaigning when there was uncertainty over the polls.
“Our campaign is continuing. We have to organise more meetings as the campaign period has now been extended,” noted Mr. Herath.
The NPP is holding meetings in different parts of the country, with party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and other senior party members in attendance.
Mr. Herath also insisted that opposition parties would have to continue their fight to ensure that the election was not further delayed. “We will have to continue the fight in the streets, in courts, and also take the matter to the international community.”
Unlike most opposition parties, the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has not held large-scale campaign rallies so far. There were several reasons for this, said party General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam.
“One reason is that the new campaign finance laws have placed severe restrictions on holding such rallies. We also don’t believe they will make a big impact as this is a village-level election where the focus should be on promoting local council candidates and voters’ minds won’t change through large national-level rallies,” he explained.
He also pointed out that the SLPP had used the strategy of holding smaller public meetings to successful effect during the 2018 local council elections.
“We have 5000 candidates at the upcoming local council elections and even if one of them holds one small meeting a day, that’s 5000 meetings a day. These small meetings have been very successful,” he said.
The party, however, was planning to start what Mr. Kariyawasam called “medium-level rallies” this weekend. The first of these SLPP rallies is due to be held today (12) in Monaragala under the patronage of party leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The second rally will be held in Kurunegala in the coming days.
Meanwhile, some candidates say they have been severely inconvenienced by the failure to hold the poll on March 9. They include more than 3000 public servants who had taken no-pay leave to contest the upcoming election and who are prohibited from returning to their jobs by law while the electoral process is ongoing.
Ananda Sarath Kumara, who is contesting for the Kandy Municipal Council from the recently formed Freedom People’s Alliance (FPA) is one such public servant.
“I’m not paid my salary and I have to spend the money I have saved for my campaign. It has become extremely difficult to live as a result,” he told the Sunday Times.
Mr. Sarath Kumara put the blame squarely on the EC for the mess. “The EC needs to show some backbone. It must either confront the forces that are trying to postpone the poll or its members should resign saying they are not allowed to work. I think what’s happening now is another attempt to deceive us.”
The EC has now made an attempt to address the problem faced by public servants inconvenienced by the postponement of the elections. On Friday, the EC said it had recommended that the basic salaries of public servants — who are candidates at the elections — be paid with effect from March 9 for the duration of the poll’s delay.
The recommendation had been forwarded to the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration so that it can be submitted to the Cabinet for approval, the Commission further announced.
Mr. Sarath Kumara, though, said he was unsure whether the recommendation would be approved. “The continued uncertainty over everything is very difficult to take. It just seems like this whole election is being used to take revenge on the people,” he said.
