පළාත් මැතිවරණවලට පෙර ස්වාධීන මැතිවරණ කොමිසම ඇති කළ යුතුයි
The editorial observes that the People’s Alliance is preparing to test its strength in provincial council elections without the independent Elections Commission required by the 17th Amendment. The President unconstitutionally withholds approval of the Constitutional Council’s nominees, while the government, the JVP and the Supreme Court have all failed to act. It warns that future elections will become a frenzied plunder between two power blocs unless the commission is established and electoral law reformed first.
ආරක්ෂෂාව සඳහා පිස්තෝල ඉල්ලීම
PA members of the Southern Provincial Council are reported to be seeking pistols from the President. The editorial notes that Sri Lanka alone arms its legislators, a practice begun during the 1989–90 JVP insurrection and never stopped, and argues that it cheapens representative democracy and fuels violence and crime by MPs’ guards; protection should come from the police, and the promised disarming of MPs has not happened.
ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ පරිවාස වැඩපිළිවෙළ
Ivan questions whether the JVP can win the five independent commissions by giving oxygen to a dying People’s Alliance government. He recalls its seats on the rigged North Western Provincial Council and support for PA provincial administrations, and gives the numbers: the government fell from a majority to 109 against 115 after Rauff Hakeem’s group left, and JVP support brings it back to 119. He argues that the pact’s ban on peace talks, privatisation and price rises clashes with the IMF standby agreement and risks another LTTE attack like Katunayake.
What happened to the Wayamba Election?
All the Wayamba election petitions were dismissed at the stage of preliminary objections, on the ground that they had not specified how the corruption, the intimidation and the prevention of voting had affected the result. What the petitions actually contained, station by station, is set out here.
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.