Ampara: Barricades and banners herald polls

With barely three weeks to go for the elections to the Eastern Provincial Council, Ampara town looks like a city under siege. The Police Special Task Force (STF) whose presence was very much a part of the makeup of this area may no longer be there but instead there are regular policemen and army. They dot the roads and by roads in and around the town. Although there are endless checkpoints half a kilometre apart from each other, there is fear among people that violence would erupt as the polls campaign hots up.

Security has been further tightened in the area as the government plans to hold its May Day rally here. Though security authorities have advised against it, preparations are under way to hold the rally in Dehiattakandiya. An estimated 30,000 crowd is expected to attend turning the event into a security nightmare.

All the vehicles entering the town are checked thoroughly. One of the sights we encountered was vehicles sporting banners and flags of respective candidates being stopped at these checkpoints.

Last Sunday, a 27-year-old mason, Vethanayakam Ethakaran was shot dead. His assailants had reportedly arrived at his home in Pandirippu, Kalmunai, in a motor cycle, opened fire and got away. Neighbours claim the suspects were gunmen from the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) but Police say there is no evidence to prove it. On Thursday morning, another mason P. Prakash (21), from Sagama Road, Akkaraipattu was shot and wounded on his way to work. He is at Ampara Hospital in a critical condition. Here too two assailants had come on a motorcycle and fired at him. Neighbours once again have accused gunmen of the TMVP, but Police once again say there is no evidence.

Unlike in the other two districts of the Eastern Province, Batticaloa and Trincomalee, campaigning for the May 10 provincial elections is in full swing here with candidates and their supporters going on a house-to-house campaign. While SLMC supporters are seen campaigning in the Muslim populated areas of Akkaraipattu, Sainthamaruthu and Kalmunai, TMVP unarmed cadres are seen in Tamil-populated areas of Tirukkovil, Pandirippu, Karaitivu and Pottuvil.

Villagers, especially in the interior areas appear to be enthusiastic about the polls. They believe that their representatives in the provincial council would look into their needs more than MPs and cabinet ministers who they say spend most of their time in Colombo.

Meanwhile the government has planned ambitious programmes ahead of the polls. One of them was the 85-kilometre highway linking Akkaraipattu, Siyambalanduwa and Pottuvil. This project costing around Rs. 4.5 billion was to be launched by Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle on April 8. But he was killed in a suicide attack at a marathon race at Weliweriya on April 6. Now piles of metal lie on the roadside with officials saying they don’t know when work on the highway would resume. Another is a water supply scheme for the district.

In Pulukunawa a vast area of land has been cleared and houses have sprung up. This is apparently to resettle Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the Ampara district. The government believes that this project once completed would translate into votes.

With 41 per cent of the population being Sinhalese in this district the JVP is playing a key role here. The party has already set up an office and it is carrying out its campaign in small groups. However, the internal dispute within the party is likely to have a bearing on its performance at the polls.

Some of the problems faced by the people of this district are the lack of a proper irrigation scheme to carryon agricultural activities, poor health facilities in interior areas and a lack of proper storage facilities for fishermen. The restrictions imposed on fishing activities have affected the fishing community too.