Post Script; WPC elections and the Ethnic divide
by Kusal Perera
Full results of the Western Provincial Council (WPC) election are now officially released. This includes the final count of preference votes for each candidate in all 03 districts. Accordingly, the lists of eligible candidates elected to the PC from each political party for the 03 districts have been announced by the Elections Commissioner.
[Officials reported on April 26 that Sri Lanka's ruling party on April 25 won by a landslide in a local election that the country's president had turned into a referendum on his military campaign to crush Tamil rebels-getty images]
This adds further evidence to the reading I made in my article written on Sunday 26th April, on the WPC elections, before the preference vote was counted.
As pointed out, Gampaha and Kalutara districts with extremely high Sinhala voter presence returned ONLY Sinhala candidates from political party lists, except the single candidate who was elected from the SLMC list in Gampaha. That was possible due to the concentration of Muslim voters in Malwana Pradeshiya Sabha area and in Thihariya, in Nittambuwa area. Though the Kalutara district too has Muslim concentrations as in Beruwala and Keselwatte in Panadura, the concentration of Sinhala votes made the Muslim numbers inadequate to return a Muslim candidate. Therefore in the two districts that elected 59 Councilors to the WP only 01 Muslim has been elected at this election.
Colombo district thus become the mirror on which the ethnic divide can be clearly seen. In Colombo the Sinhala vote that rallied round the government list (UPFA) made it certain that 24 out of the 25 elected candidates are Sinhala. The only other being a Muslim.
The UNP considered the strongest list for the Minorities to use their vote as a protest vote against the government and its war, has 07 out of 15 elected candidates representing the Minorities.
There are 03 Muslim and 04 Tamil candidates elected as Councilors from the UNP list, while from the 03 other Opposition candidates elected, there are 02 Muslim Councilors with the JVP getting a Sinhala Councilor. This makes a total of 09 Councilors representing the Minorities in the Opposition from 18 Councilors elected from the Colombo district to the WPC Opposition.
5 Comments
Not sure what Kusal Perera tries to make out here.
Does he/she wants to see more minority representation? On what basis?
Certainly, the PR system is allowing more minority representation (including JVP, which is a minority in terms of it's electoral base) than the first past the post system.
Imagine the composition of the council if the election was held under the first past the post system. We would have seen only 5 opposition members (from UNP) as all other electoral divisions were won by the UPFA.
Therefore Sri Lanka has got a more representative system than many other five star democratic systems in the world.
If not for war propanganda UNP certaily would have got equal Sinhala votes. But as far as minorities are concerned didn't they always vote for UNP? This is unfortunate for die-hard SLFP supporters loath this behaviour of the minorities. Even if this war were conducted by UNP Tamils would be voting for UNP!
This Arithmetic majority by any means make minority non existence. This why GG P was asking about the 50/50 decision making power.
Kusal, you must also note that though VP might have received Rs. 180 million from the Rajapakse clowns and enforced an election boycott, the results showed that it was Sinhala people who elected the WAR president and MR is a president only for the Sinhala people not for the Tamils.
The sad part is only after the death of 10000 and severely injuring over 25000 with nearly half a million uprooted ,made homeless and locked up in concentration camps ( the IDPs in both North and East), the International Comedians are openly talking warning of Secession ( as White house mentioned the warning against united Srilanka).
Although the Sinhalese people voted for UFPA to support the 'War Strategy', this doesnot mean that they are racist. This situation has been manipulated by the Government, exploiting pro-war sentiment, by not having a referendum but to have separate local elections to ensure the continued dominance of UPFA for years to come. This is a way to undermine the Provincial Council System by making it subservient to the Ruling Junta.
In fact since the Provincial Council is the instrument of devolution under the 13 amendment the effect of undermining this sets the stage for continued domination by the Central Government.In Sri Lanka the Central Government means the Executive in whose hands are all the powers. So all these elections are just a means of subjugating the Opposition Polical Parties and setting the stage for a dictatorial regime under Rajapakse and Siblings for the next decade to come.
Under this regime Rajapakse hopes to rule with impunity, subjugating all dissent and political opposition, insulating himself from the Global Community as well as implementing a pro Sinhala Buddhist political system. So thais is actually the end of democracy in this country and in future everything will be according to 'Mahinda Chintana'.
All those who find problems with the UFPA win. This is what Democracy is. The leader with most votes wins.
Tamils - The day you lot start thinking as Sri Lankans and not as Tamils will be the day when you can become President. Take Barak Obama for point in case!