Sri Lanka holds first post-civil war general election
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Sri Lankans go to polls on Thursday in the first general election held after the conclusion of the island's 30-year-old civil war. While the ruling coalition's victory has been a foreseen conclusion, the opposition had been focused on preventing the government returning to power with a two- thirds majority.
According to the Elections Commissioner's Department, of the 225 members of parliament 196 will be elected directly from the island's 22 districts while 29 will come from the National List under the Proportional Representation system.
This will be the first general election held without the presence of the rebel Libeartion Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was defeated by the government troops in May 2009.
A total of 7,620 candidates from 36 political parties and 301 independent groups are in the fray representing 22 electoral districts.
A total of 14,088,500 persons are eligible to cast their votes from 7 a.m. (0130 GMT) to 4 p.m. (1030 GMT) at 11,102 polling stations in the country.
Election officials said there would be 88 polling centers in the north for civilians displaced by the final battles between the government troops and the LTTE in 2009.
Out of the 36 political parties in the race, the main contenders are the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the newly formed Democratic National Alliance headed by the leftist JVP or the People's Liberation Front. The first election result will be released by the midnight of Thursday or in the wee hours of Friday, Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said.
The elections commissioner has deployed over 58,000 police personnel for election duty. In addition, the Army will also be deployed in strength to assist the police to prevent possible incidents at polling stations.
The police's elite Special Task Force will be deployed at polling stations where certain incidents had been reported during earlier elections, Dissanayake said.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa dissolved the island's parliament in February shortly after his landslide victory at the Jan. 26 presidential election when he defeated former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka by about 1.8 million votes.
The election campaign of the most crucial general elections in recent times was marred not by inter-party violence as usual but by intra-party rivalry, analysts say.
The fight for preferential votes among candidates of the same party was so tense that President Rajapaksa had to declare that the number of preferential votes will not be a factor to automatically qualify for ministerial posts in the next UPFA government.
Rajapaksa also said that those who violate party discipline in their fight for preferential votes will be dealt with severely and will not be considered for any responsibility in the party.
The opposition had been focused on preventing the government returning to power with a two-thirds majority while the UPFA campaigned for a mandate with the majority to introduce long awaited constitutional and electoral reforms and to make Sri Lanka the economic miracle in South Asia in the next six years.
On the other hand, the UNP wants a change of government to restore law and order, democracy and good governance allegedly missing under the present administration.
The JVP wants to form a government with detained former Army Commander General Fonseka as the prime minister that will see the end of corruption and restore media freedom and human rights.
Police spokesman Preshantha Jayakody said there were 234 election-related incidents by Wednesday but none of them was of a serious nature.
Rohana Hettiarachchi, executive director of the local monitoring organization PAFFREL (People's Action for Free and Fair Elections) said his organization will monitor the general election deploying 11,000 local observers and 16 foreign observers sent from the Asian Network for Free and Fair Elections.
Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the UNP on Wednesday appealed to the authorities to ensure a free and fair election.
"I appeal to the public to go early and cast their ballots. Don't stay at home. We have taken precautions to ensure that your franchise can not be stolen," Wickremesinghe was quoted by local media as saying.
The opposition leader said that the election would be crucial since it will be a choice between good governance and corruption, rule of law and anarchy, economic prosperity and poverty.
At the 2004 parliamentary elections, the UPFA secured 105 seats, while the UNP secured 82. They were followed by the main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance (22 seats), the monk party JHU ( National Heritage Party, nine seats), the main Muslim party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (five seats), Up Country People's Front ( representing Tamil labors in the hilly tea estate, one seat) and the pro-government Tamil party Eelam People's Democratic Party (one seat).
The new 225-member legislature is scheduled to hold its first session on April 22.
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