‘Polls phobia’

Wednesday 12th October, 2022

The resentful public is demanding elections, but the government is offering electoral reforms instead. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that unless political parties co-operate with the government to reform the electoral system, the people will be consulted thereon directly at a referendum. He seems to think the people are still with the government! There is no gainsaying that electoral reforms are necessary, but the government’s preoccupation with them at this juncture is only a ruse to postpone elections, which it is scared of.

The government has suddenly woken up to the fact that there are far too many local government members. Before the introduction of the mixed representation system in 2018, the country had been burdened with only about 4,000 local councillors. Today, there are more than 8,000 of them! The government has undertaken to halve this number, and this move is sure to go down well with the public and benefit the country, but the problem is that it is a ploy to delay the local government polls further. A regime that fears elections is a threat to democracy.

Government politicians are busy trying to undo what they did, and redo what they undid. The electoral reforms that plunged the local government councils into chaos were introduced under the Yahapalana government. Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister at the time. He is now offering to reduce the number of local councillors! The Rajapaksas did away with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and introduced the 20th Amendment in 2020 to enhance the powers of the President and enable him to dissolve Parliament after the expiration of two and a half years of its term. Today, they are all out to reverse that provision to compass their ends.

When a government fails to solve the people’s problems, it must at least hold elections on time, allowing the public to decide whether to allow it to continue to be in power. Problems that the Rajapaksa family, the SLPP, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the UNP and Dinesh Gunawardena and some others were facing have all been solved. The Rajapaksas, who went into hiding owing to public protests, a few moons ago, have consolidated their hold on power. Basil Rajapaksa has caused all cases against him to collapse, and keeps the government on a string. A campaign has got underway to revive the SLPP, and all those who ruined the country have crawled out of the woodwork. Wickremesinghe has secured the executive presidency—a dream come true for him. The UNP is trying to make a comeback. Gunawardenna has also realised his dream of becoming the Prime Minister.

All the problems that drove the public to stage street protests remain unsolved. Inflation is soaring, and life has become unbearable for most people, who are struggling to keep the wolf from the door. There has been no increase in foreign currency reserves, and the promised IMF relief is not likely to materialise anytime soon. Corruption is rampant. Corrupt fuel deals have helped government politicians and their cronies line their pockets.

The government is labouring under the delusion that its strong-arm tactics will help crush public protests. They seem to have worked so far, but are bound to fail. It is popularly said that no clay pot is too big for a bludgeon; no government can suppress people power.

There is a massive build-up of public anger in the polity, and it has to be defused. The sooner, the better. The most effective way of doing so is to hold an early general election for the resentful public to canalise their anger in a democratic manner. It may be argued that the prevailing economic conditions are not conducive to an electoral contest, but there seems to be no other way.

The family rule, which has ruined the country, has to be ended, and the people must be given an opportunity to do so democratically. Otherwise, the day may not be far off when their anger finds expression in violent uprisings, which will make the protests that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pale into insignificance.