PC Elections – violations of the law have commenced and no action

The impunity with which the law is broken is such, people now don’t even seem to care. Once Provincial Councils are dissolved, all assets in the hands of the Councilors and Chief Minister, that DO NOT belong to them, including the fleets of state vehicles, MUST be handed over to the Council. However NO bureaucrat wishes to enforce these regulations, as he will be out of office, once the councilors return elected. It is this behavior that prevents State officials, not the elected representatives, from doing their job.

The benefit from this lack of exercise of the law, and lack of notifying the police that the law has been broken, will be with the ruling party, as the power of office is one the opposition will find difficult to match. Hence the need for transparency and governance! The opposition campaign has to be very clever, smart and with a maximum bang for their buck to meet this.

I am unable to make a change in practice, and can only appeal to the reader to make the voter aware. There is no media that simple folk like me can appeal to which will go to the grass roots to explain what the real facts and are. The voter must realize that they are only seeing one side of the debate with the party with clear advantage to make a noise, have the funds for stage and singalongs. (the famous sangeethas that Sri Lankan election campaigns have now become famous for) and generally hoodwink the electorate.

If there is no fraud at the counting point of the votes, there still is every breach of election law up until that point. The power will saturate the airwaves and make promises. Contracts will be made with people to offer them what they want, but only after the elections, after they have won. The opposition cannot engage in this rhetoric, as they are devoid of the funds even to engage in the basic house to house campaigning. They must resort to volunteers to approach as many people as possible to patiently make the case that other costly publicity could do but is not available.

I wish there was a fairer way to approach the elections. In the long term an improvement to education which can train people to be rational and consider the pros and cons fairly, will only enable the voter to judge elections for their true purpose. The Govt. has clearly stated that this election is merely to assess the mood of the electorate. So it is not about improving the governance and productivity of the Provincial Councils!! To waste billions for this endorsement whilst there are crying needs is selfish at best and must be seen for its true intent. I hope the voter can judge.