The tussle for supremacy at the forthcoming General Election on August 5 is intensifying with just four weeks to go for the poll and political parties grappling with campaigning using social media and door to door campaigning instead of the traditional mass rallies.
At this stage, the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is the clear favourite to emerge victorious at the poll. All eyes are on whether it would be able to secure a two thirds majority. The opposition meanwhile is trying to assess the impact of the split in the United National Party (UNP).
The divisions in the UNP, which led to the formation of the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) led by the UNP’s erstwhile deputy leader and presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa, will no doubt hurt the Grand Old Party. It is the extent of this damage that is difficult to quantify just yet.
The vast majority of UNP legislators in the Parliament that was just dissolved opted to align themselves with the SJB and contest from the fledgling party. This cost the UNP a significant loss of grassroots support. It also indicated the degree of disaffection with the party’s decades old leadership.
This would suggest that the SJB should outperform the UNP at the election. If that does happen, that could sound the death knell for one of the oldest political parties in the country and a party that was in the forefront of Government in the first 50 years after independence.
There is already recognition of this possibility. It came in the form of a statement from Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. In a hard-hitting analysis, Premier Rajapaksa accused the SJB of engaging in communal politics to win votes and attacked Premadasa’s presidential election manifesto.
“The inclusion of constitutional proposals aimed at the division of the country in the manifesto of a major political party is a cause for grave concern. If they had won the last Presidential Election, these proposals would have been implemented,” Prime Minister Rajapaksa said.
Referring to parties aligned with the SJB, Premier Rajapaksa said that they were earlier with the UNP, but have now shifted their allegiance to the SJB as Ranil Wickremesinghe is not capable of winning the required number of Sinhala votes whereas Premadasa is thought to be better positioned to do so.
This could be viewed as political rhetoric during an election campaign but what is significant is that Prime Minister Rajapaksa who is arguably the most astute politician in the political arena now, singling out the SJB. This suggests that the he too sees the SJB as a greater threat than the UNP.
The SJB however had an unexpected setback this week when one of its candidates for the Puttalam district, Ashoka Wadigamangawa, was killed in an accident. Wadigamangawa is the second candidate of the poll to pass away, after Minister Arumugam Thondaman.
Wadigamangawa, a popular politician in Puttalam had a chequered political career. He entered Parliament as a UNP MP in 1989 and was returned in 1994. However, he then switched loyalties to then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He contested the 2019 Presidential Poll before joining the SJB.
The SJB had challenged the suspension of its members from the UNP in courts but this was dismissed. Now the party is seeking the intervention of the Court of Appeal to obtain an injunction against their suspension, a task that has kept Party Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara occupied.
There is no doubt that the ruling SLPP will seek to exploit the differences between the UNP and the SLFP. However, it appears that the two opposition parties hardly need any assistance in battling with each other, with inflammatory statements emanating from both camps regularly.
The latest salvo came in the form of remarks by UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam who stated that more than 15 candidates of the SJB would join the UNP after the elections. “We will select and accept only those who would be useful to the country,” Kariyawasam said.
Kariyawasam also quoted history saying that more than 90 UNP organisers left the party in 1977 when its then leader J.R. Jayewardene suspended Rukman Senanayake. “Yet, the UNP was able to secure a five-sixth majority in 1977 by fielding its ‘B’ team,” Kariyawasam argued.
Despite such comments which are probably more political bravado than being based on reality, it is clear that the rivalry between the UNP and the SJB is escalating. Stalwarts in the UNP have confided that they fear this could be the last election the party faces as a major political force in the country.
The UNP has other battles to fight too. The party’s Assistant Leader Ravi Karunanayake was busy in the Court of Appeal pleading for an interim order staying the operation of arrest warrants issued by the Colombo Fort Magistrate in connection with the Central Bank bonds scam.
This week, the Court of Appeal issued an interim order staying the execution of the arrest warrant. A three-judge bench comprising Justices A.H.M.D. Nawaz, Shiran Gunaratne and Sobhitha Rajakaruna made the order but said that this order should not be an obstacle for the on-going investigations.
Also in the UNP camp, Kalutara district candidate Palitha Thevarapperuma was threatening to withdraw from the election and retire from politics due to what he called “constant harassment from the Police”. Curiously, Thevarapperuma blamed this on the SJB.
Thevarapperuma is known as a maverick politician in the Mervyn Silva mould and has a penchant for making outrageous remarks. His comments are more likely to be a publicity stunt to attract attention than a real threat to quit politics. However, he does have a popular following in the Kalutara district.
In the Government camp, perhaps the most outrageous remarks came from former Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage. He insisted that his claim that the World Cup cricket final between Sri Lanka and India in 2011 was ‘fixed’ be probed again, even after Police decided to close the inquiry.
Aluthgamage made the claim initially several weeks ago. This led to outrage in cricketing circles. The summoning of the then captain of the Sri Lanka cricket team, Kumar Sangakkara to Police attracted widespread criticism. Social media exploded with negative comments about Aluthgamage.
When former captain Mahela Jayewardene was summoned next, he was reportedly informed by Police not to appear. Media reports then appeared suggesting that he had declined to appear. This prompted Jayewardene to make an appearance at the Police SIU and inform the media of what transpired.
These events have helped neither the Government nor the SLPP and least of all, Aluthgamage who is now being questioned on why he was inactive while being Minister of Sports for four years after the alleged event. The Opposition is asking that he be charged for making false accusations.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya have been undeterred by these side events and have made no secret of the fact that they are seeking a two-thirds majority which would enable the ruling party to enact far reaching constitutional amendments.
Prime Minister Rajapaksa told a meeting convened to felicitate him on completing 50 years in Parliament that his ‘saloon door’ should be replaced with a metal door to establish a strong Government that would replace the current Constitution with what he called a strong Constitution.
The remark about a ‘saloon door’ was a reference to one of Premier Rajapaksa’s famous previous quotes when he was President. At that time, he said that his political alliance had swinging doors such as in a saloon, so anyone could enter or leave as they wished- a stark reality in Sri Lankan politics.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa meanwhile surprised even some in his own circles by taking to the campaign trail. He participated in several meetings in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts, an interesting choice since these are regions where the SLPP vote base is considered to be very strong.
An issue of interest within the SLPP campaign is how candidates from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) will fare. They include some high-profile personalities such as former President Maithripala Sirisena in Polonnaruwa and SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara in Kurunegala.
Clashes between SLFP and SLPP candidates have been reported in some districts, particularly where the battle for the preference vote is intense. If SLFP candidates are not returned in adequate numbers at the election, the very future of the party and Maithripala Sirisena’s leadership will be at stake. Campaigning for the poll is low key because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Yet, the August 5 election will mark a critical juncture in Sri Lankan politics. That is because it could, while essentially continuing the two-party political culture in the country, herald in two new parties- the SLPP and the SJB.
from daily news