Was the last presidential election a fraud?
Nagananda Kodithuwakku’s petition asks whether Gotabaya Rajapaksa was qualified to stand at all. Victor Ivan follows the citizenship question and asks why neither rival candidate ever raised it.
ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ උරගා බැලීම්
Ivan names the institutions the January 2015 election will test. The judiciary has already bent, approving a third term. The state media have been turned into campaign tools, with attacks on Maithripala Sirisena’s rallies such as at Polonnaruwa. The Commissioner of Elections faces abuses such as in the Polpithigama division, while the Presidential Elections Act of 1981 clearly defines bribery. Finally he warns about any role for the security forces in the campaign.
ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ ගති ලක්ෂණ
Ivan examines how the President resolved the Eighteenth Amendment dispute by seeking the Supreme Court’s opinion on 5 November 2014, which he says shows a judiciary tamed since the impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake, recalling J.R. Jayewardene’s treatment of the courts. He criticises the Commissioner of Elections’ passivity over the election’s timing and the Pope’s visit, and warns that the opposition’s disunity and factionalism could hand the government a third term and push the country towards anarchy.
ඌව ඡන්දය හා අශීලාචාර මැතිවරණ ක්රමය
With the Uva provincial election showing the government’s abuse of state resources, from Divi Neguma handouts to Samurdhi officers campaigning, Ivan compares campaign-finance rules in the United States, France and India with Sri Lanka, where spending limits vanished after 1978. He asks whether the Commissioner of Elections has the power to act, citing court rulings, and proposes nine reforms, including penalties for politicians who order officials to break the law, stronger powers for the Commissioner, control of party funds, and full asset declarations for candidates.
මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස් වත්කම් බැරකම් නීතිය
Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya collected candidates’ asset declarations with zeal, Ivan argues, only to lock them away, telling Ravaya that the public needs a court order to see them. The 1988 amendment to the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law gives anyone the right to certified copies for a fee. Ivan recounts how he first saw Lalith Athulathmudali’s declaration, the People’s Alliance’s broken 1994 pledge to publish ministers’ assets, the Speaker who complied and the President’s office that did not, and reproduces a 2005 letter from Deshapriya’s predecessor sending him six declarations — disproving the claim that there is no precedent.
අගවිනිසුරුගේ දෝෂාභියෝගයෙන් පන පෙවෙන වත්කම් බැරකම් නීතිය
Two of the impeachment charges against the Chief Justice concern her asset declarations, and Ivan argues that whatever their merit they have revived a powerful but neglected law. He explains the 1975 Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law and its 1988 amendment, which gave any citizen the right to inspect declarations and did not exempt the president. He recounts learning of the law from MP C.V. Gooneratne in the late 1980s, asking the Secretary-General of Parliament for MPs’ declarations, persuading G.L. Peiris, and later testing the Kumaratunga government and the Election Commissioners, and calls for the law to be updated and strictly enforced.