POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Voting is Peaceful After Violent Campaign

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Dec 21 1999 (IPS) - Sri Lankans turned out in large numbers to cast their votes, Tuesday, in presidential elections which have been marked by violence including a weekend assassination bid on President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Polling ended at 4 pm (local time) and the results of the closely fought election, between Kumaratunga and opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, are likely to be known early Wednesday when counting is expected to end.

Election officials said that initial reports from polling stations indicated a high voter turnout of between 70 and 80 percent. Some 11.8 million voters were eligible to voter.

There were reports of intimidation and harassment of voters and the seizure of some ballot papers in parts of the country, but they are unlikely to influence the outcome, analysts said. Four people were killed, two in police shooting on ruling party supporters who tried to grab ballot boxes, in overnight clashes.

Opinion was divided over whether Kumaratunga or Wickremasinghe, leader of the United National Party (UNP), would win but there appeared to be a swing in the president’s favour after the attempt on her life, Dec. 18.

Till last week most political analysts, diplomats and independent groups were unanimous that Kumaratunga and Wickremasinghe were running neck-and-neck, well ahead of the other 11 contenders in the presidential race.

The private Centre for Monitoring Elections (CMEV) reported some incidents of election violence and intimidation from the central and western regions but noted that it was still too early to say whether this would have a bearing on the polls outcome.

“We have reports of pockets of violence from Kandy, Hanguranketa and Hewahata in the central district and Gampaha and Attanagalla in the western region but we have to await fuller reports from our field monitors to provide a more accurate assessment,” said Dr Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director.

For the first time the CMEV, whose funds from the US-based Asia Foundation was stopped by the government on the grounds that its monitoring was biased, and other private monitors like PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections) were not permitted entry into the polling booths.

Some 60 foreign observers invited to the election fanned out in the country with teams of local monitors.

Reports from the island’s north and east, where separatist Tamil Tiger rebels operate, say polling was peaceful. Journalists in the northern Jaffna peninsula said the army had relaxed security at checkpoints in the city to allow free movement of people going to polling booths.

Residents there appeared to support Wickremasinghe, with the military ensuring the poll was “free and fair” and not allowing pro-government groups like the Eelam People’s Democratic Front (EPDP), operating in Jaffna, to resort to malpractices.

“We got some calls from the local EPDP office saying there was a crowd of people outside hooting and jeering at their people and wanted some security,” a senior military officer said.

Residents in Batticaloa in the eastern region said polling was brisk and many voters had travelled several miles from rebel- controlled territory to government areas where polling booths were located.

A widely-held view is that urban voters and a majority of Tamils and Muslims favour Wickremasinghe while Kumaratunga draws her strength mostly from the rural areas, where the bulk of Sri Lankans live.

The minority Muslim community, and Tamils of Indian origin, the plantation labour whose pro-Kumaratunga leader passed away on Oct. 30, are largely undecided. Their votes could be split between the two main candidates.

Only one of the president’s Tamil party allies is openly supporting her. Her staunchest ally, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) whose leader Neelan Tiruchelvam was assassinated by suspected the Tigers in July this year, has deserted her, saying it intends to be neutral.

Kumaratunga, who suffered injuries to her right eye and face when a suspected Tamil rebel suicide bomber struck at her election meeting, Dec. 18, appeared with a patch on national television, Monday night, and appealed to Tamil youth to surrender arms and join her in ending the ethnic conflict.

Sri Lanka has been torn by civil war for 17 years. Tamil Tiger

rebels who claim they represent the island’s large Tamil minority want a separate homeland, they call ‘Eelam’.

Kumaratunga who won the 1994 election promising to end the conflict, had begun peace negotiations with the rebels. But, like in the past, they broke the talks to resume the war.

Opposition leader Wickremasinghe’s offer of peace talks with the rebels if he won the election had elicited a positive response. In a speech last month, rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran called Kumaratunga’s five-year rule a “curse” on the Tamils, an indirect call to Tamils to vote against her.

After the bid on her life, the president said she would crush the Tigers, if the voters give her a second six-year term.