Now back in power, what will she do?
Chandrika Kumaratunga’s win was not a clean victory in the full sense, and the abuses were not so great as to make one regret it. They did occur — in Hanguranketha, Wattegama, Wariyapola, Dambulla. What she does now is the question.
An election with democracy turned upside down
The SLMC leader told the President that winning a corrupt election would blemish not only her but her children, and that losing a free one would be more honourable. She assured him there would be a clean election. This column sets that assurance against what was being arranged in the districts.
Disregard for the law
Under section 16 of the Presidential Elections Act, only the candidate, the person who nominates him and one other may come to the place where the Commissioner receives nominations. What happened at this nomination, and who was standing where, is the subject of the column.
Who will get the Tamil support?
The President has gone for a snap election before her term expires, hoping to win it and then to convert that into a bigger parliamentary majority. The hope depends on the first hurdle, and the first hurdle depends on the Tamil vote — which this column counts constituency by constituency.
Will her surprise move patch up cracks?
Many observers knew the President had plans for a snap presidential election; most were still caught unawares when she proclaimed one and shelved the November budget. What follows is a reading of the arithmetic she is betting on, party by party and vote by vote.
Doing the best thing for the worst reasons
Victor Ivan analyses the 1993 Southern Provincial Council election, called after the Government’s attempt to unseat Chief Minister Amarasiri Dodangoda and install M.S. Amarasiri collapsed halfway. He argues the Government has inadvertently done the Opposition a favour: the People’s Alliance had been clinging to a one-vote majority that made every member individually indispensable and produced constant in-fighting over portfolios. Examining vote shares across Galle, Matara and Hambantota, Ivan shows the PA-DUNF combination outpolled the UNP by 61,106 votes yet lost the bonus seats to it, and contends that Gamini Dissanayake’s defection will bring the Government little benefit in a province that has not given the UNP half the vote since 1982.