මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයාගේ වගකීම
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Central Provincial Council poll in Ududumbara, Pathadumbara, Hewaheta and Galagedara was grossly corrupt and that the Elections Commissioner violated petitioners’ rights by not cancelling voting at all 23 polling stations, whatever obstruction he faced. The editorial applies the Court’s words, that the law wants a real election, not a sham, to the presidential poll’s alleged forged ballots, on which the Commissioner remains silent.
බල තරගයේ වෛර සාධකය ඉවත් කිරීම
Mutual hatred and fear of reprisal stop parties from agreeing on national problems. The editorial reports the Alliance for Democracy’s all-party meeting in Parliament on its eleven-point reform programme, attended by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Rauff Hakeem, the UNP, JVP, TULF, TELO and Tamil Congress, where all agreed that the presidency should answer to Parliament and the courts, backed independent commissions, and favoured holding presidential and parliamentary elections together.
An attempt to define electorial malpractice
The UNP has withdrawn its Supreme Court petition against the presidential election. What the deputy leader’s statement shows is how deep the dissatisfaction in the main opposition party has become about the way things happen in that court.
ජනාධිපති ඡන්ද පෙත්සම ඉවත් කරගැනීම
The UNP has withdrawn its petition against Kumaratunga’s election, citing, through deputy leader Gamini Atukorale, Supreme Court rulings that limited evidence and demanded proof that it lost 1,230,258 votes to malpractice. Ivan shows by arithmetic that far fewer votes would have changed the result, or forced a second count since she cleared 50 per cent by only 5,489 votes, and urges the Elections Commissioner to investigate allegations of forged ballot papers.
යන්නෙ කොහේද? මල්ලෙ පොල්
Ivan catalogues the absurdities of government: the President’s television pledge not to postpone local elections, contradicted by the news bulletin that followed; her claim that democratic freedom is complete as the International Press Institute put Sri Lanka on its watch list; Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake blaming democracy for the decline; attacks on the UNP’s march in Kegalle linked to Mahipala Herath; and a curb on ministers’ vehicles issued after they had all been bought.
Government in extremely delicate position
The PA government seems to be trying to cover up all its sins through peace talks. Meanwhile the conditions for a democratic political culture — an independent elections commission first among them — are being deferred until a new constitution that may never come.
A wake up call to main opposition
The opposition transacts with this government the way a serf transacts with his feudal lord. The serf’s manner before his master is timid: he could not protest even when his wife or his daughter was taken. Timid talk about four commissions will not revive a decaying democracy.
එජාප බැරී බැරී රෝගයට පිළියමක් සොයාගත යුතුය
Ivan likens the UNP’s dealings with the People’s Alliance government to a hereditary serf’s timidity before his lord. Though the Elections Commissioner, religious leaders, PAFFREL, the election-violence monitors and EU observers found the October 2000 poll unfair, the UNP chose to ‘let bygones be bygones’ and filed half-hearted petitions. He recalls, from Prins Gunasekera’s book, how Sirimavo Bandaranaike withdrew as petitioner against the 1982 referendum, leaving Rohana Wijeweera to file, and asks why the UNP stayed silent on Sarath N. Silva’s appointment and on the 1999 presidential poll.
දේශපාලන සංස්කෘතිය ගෞරවනීය තැනකට ගෙන ඒම පළමුවෙන්ම සිදුවිය යුතුය
The TULF objects that the PA–UNP consensus agenda covers democracy but not the ethnic question. Ivan agrees a settlement is vital but says it needs cross-party consensus, impossible while ruling parties use state power against rivals: the UNP stripped the SLFP leader’s civic rights and banned the JVP, and the PA humiliated and split the UNP and harassed the JVP. He calls for a level field, beginning with a judiciary freed from the executive and a new Chief Justice, laws against persecuting opponents, and the disarming of armed parties.
රාජසන කතාව හා ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය
The editorial says the President’s throne speech covered much but ignored the real problems of democracy. It cites the Elections Commissioner, PAFFREL’s finding of gross malpractice in 22 electorates, the election-violence monitors’ call to annul 17 results and EU observers’ ratings of polling stations, against her claim to have revived democracy since 1994. Consensus against Prabhakaran’s terrorism, it argues, requires first ending the state terror and electoral fraud of every ruling party since 1977, and the opposition must take up a practical reform programme.