Editorial

Editorial

Don’t weaken Elections Commissioner

Despite all the loud political professions favouring a free and fair election, the voters must surely wonder how serious those elements in the government who attempted to lynch the Elections Commissioner are about matching their words with deeds. The saga that has unfolded up to now clearly indicates that the commissioner, presented with hard evidence that forged polling cards are afloat, decided to print a sticker that would identify the genuine article from the spurious. Unfortunately that job could not be confidentially done as the commissioner had hoped. The CID conducted a raid on the press where the stickers were printed and the rest of what happened is public knowledge.

There were serious fears that there may even be an attempt to get rid of the commissioner at this eleventh hour and some opposition parties went public with their concerns. Given that the week ended with the issue appearing to be dying down, hopefully the worst is over. The fact that the European Union election monitors will be here this week will surely be a deterrent to ill-thought and precipitate action. We are glad that bodies like the Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA) took up a strong position on this matter. Civil society cannot idly sit by when blatant acts undermining elections which are the very foundation of democracy are attempted.

The very fact that there are influential forces who flirted with the thought of turning their guns on the commissioner is disturbing to say the least. But it is a fact of life that when the stakes are as high as they are in a contest that will decide who will run the government, both incumbents as well as aspirants too often go overboard in their quest of victory. Sri Lanka has known some exceptionally fine Elections Commissioners and the name of Mr. Felix Dias Abeysinghe comes easily to mind. It was he who conclusively demonstrated that a one day election is possible thanks to the backing he got from Prime Minister W. Dahanayake, who over a long period of service left his imprint on the politics of this country.

There are good reasons why elections today are more violent and more dangerous than those we have had in the earlier post-independence period. The proliferation of arms as a result of the protracted war is one of them. The need for arming politicians for self-defence at the time the JVP was determined to wreck an election, state-provided armed bodyguards functioning as private armies or goon squads have all added to the dangers of present day elections. On top of that, the open economy and massive public expenditure have opened avenues for enriching politicians. We are long past the days when rich men spent their personal fortunes on politics. Today, politics to many is an avenue of enrichment.

We have been informed by the state media that a complaint has been lodged with the Human Rights Commission about the anti-rigging sticker printed at a private press on the order of the polls chief. The complainant, who is a candidate for election on the PA national list, has contended that if the stickers end up in the wrong hands, his human rights would be violated. Certainly if the stickers, or for that matter any documents of the elections, end up in the wrong hands, the democratic rights of not just the complainant but all the electors would be violated. The problem for the Human Rights Commission (HRC) is that one of its own members is also an election candidate whose name, like that of the complainant, is also on the PA national list.

Now the UNP too has got into the human rights act over the sticker issue with a petition to the HRC demanding that the police stop interfering with the Election’s Commissioner’s anti-rigging plan. Most people will take the cynical view on whether these submissions on the part of both the PA and the UNP are the result of genuine apprehensions or just political tactics. However that be, in all these matters it is essential that justice is not only done but seem to be done. The most compelling point made by the PA side on the sticker controversy was the question on why they could not be printed in the government press? The Government Printer himself provided the answer in a television interview where he said that he certainly could have handled the job but could not have ensured secrecy on the fact that the job was being done.

If counterfeit polls cards could be printed, running the protective stickers off some underground press would not have been difficult. So secrecy was of the essence and the commissioner’s on giving the job to a private printer should not be a subject of controversy. We don’t know whether other anti-rigging measures are being enforced, and indeed nobody outside the inner circle of the elections department should know if such measures are in the pipeline, if they are to be successful. Given the terrible experience at the Wayamba Provincial Council election, and allegations that some subsequent elections were also not altogether above board, there is a crying need to ensure that the October 10 poll is free and fair. It is incumbent upon all political parties and indeed the electors themselves to help ensure that this is so. The attitude of several PA functionaries over the sticker issue certainly did not help.

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