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31st January 1999

'Operation Jaya Sikurui'

Poll Mess

US voices concern

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'Operation Jaya Sikurui'

Victory Assured for PA at Wayamba's violent polls

If bullets in the Wanni battlefields failed to win "Operation Jaya Sikurui", ballots at the Wayamba polls were victory assured for the People's Alliance. 

They won 30 seats from the 52 seat in the previously UNP held North Western Provincial Council, ceding 19 seats to the UNP and three to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. 

Even before that victory became the spotlight of public concern nationwide, the poll had cast a heavy shadow hardly minutes after polling booths were opened last Monday.

Groups of well dressed, able bodied men stormed into some polling stations and held elections officials at gun-point. Armed with pistols and automatic rifles, they seized ballot papers, marked them and stuffed them into the boxes. In some areas, designated polling booths had disappeared only to re-appear hours later in the same location. In other areas, goon squads armed with wooden poles and iron bars took to the streets and chased away voters joining queues at polling booths after they were identified by a disguised man.

In almost all instances, The Sunday Times investigations revealed, the armed groups and thugs were backing candidates of the ruling People's Alliance. Opposition polling agents were either chased out of the polling booths or physically prevented from entering them. 

Even before polling closed, news of the developments at Wayamba had angered President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. 

"Violation of election laws and malpractices alleged to have been committed at some of the polling centres of the North Western Provincial Council Elections have received the serious attention of the President," the Department of Information said in a news release. 

It said President Kumaratunga had asked the Commissioner of Elections to cancel the polling at the centres where malpractices had occurred. The news release, however, did not identify who was behind the malpractices.

An angry Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, hurriedly summoned a news conference in Colombo on Monday evening to demand the cancellation of polls in areas where there had been rigging and other malpractices.

He wanted a re-poll in these areas. He charged that brute force had been used at the polls and claimed he had information that some security forces personnel too had been involved.

Even Cabinet Ministers appeared divided on what went on. Some senior Ministers chose to remain silent. Ports Minister M. H. M. Ashraff, whose Sri Lanka Muslim Congress is an ally of the PA, said in a statement that "… the SLMC is distressed by the large number of incidents of violence which admittedly took place in the Puttalam and Kurunegala districts ......." (See Political column on page 8 for statement)

However, eight Cabinet Ministers held a news conference on Wednesday to claim that the polls were in order and to accuse the UNP of being responsible for most of the violence. 

Agriculture Minister and PA General Secretary D. M. Jayaratna, Minister and SLFP general secretary Dharmasiri Senanayake and other Ministers C.V. Gooneratne, Kingsley T. Wickremaratne, Mangala Samaraweera, Maithripala Sirisena, S.B. Dissanayake, and Alavi Moulana flanked by senior party officials were present to defend the party.

They strongly denied the allegations made by the UNP and independent polls monitors, pointing out that the previous elections had been more corrupt and what had taken place was not serious.

Mr. Samaraweera said he admitted "there were pockets of violence", but added that "violence was not institutionalized. No minister of our government went to a polling station."

But President Kumaratunga was umoved. She told Wednesady's Cabinet meeting that she would take action against those found responsible for the polls violence. The Sunday Times learnt that she has initiated a high level inquiry to ascertain details of incidents and who were involved. 

Authoritative sources told The Sunday Times that the investigations would also ascertain whether there had been sinister moves to resort to large scale malpractices and thus cause embarrassment to the President. Another aspect that is being probed is the involvement of any security forces personnel and Police in the malpractices. 

President Kumaratunga is learnt to have already received reports from the Department of Internal Intelligence about how malpractices were carried out at Wayamba. These reports, the sources told The Sunday Times, had identified persons involved and the official positions. 

The presence of polls monitors — the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFREL) and the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence — enabled not only Sri Lankans but also the diplomatic community and the international media to learn greater details about the malpractices at Wayamba. They obtained details of many incidents and documented them with photographs.

The Sunday Times today publishes extracts from reports of these polls monitoring bodies which were officially allowed by Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake, to function at Wayamba.

The polls chief had also extended the assistance of his officials at Wayamba to enable the monitors to do their task. The monitors also received the blessing of the Government although, after their findings, they have become the object of strong criticism by sections of the Cabinet. 

The CMEV report on the polls said: "Widespread election violations of every type are being reported mainly against the People's Alliance (PA) by CMEV monitors in the field, independent observers and opposition sources in the North Western Provincial Council Election today.

"Charged of systematic voter intimidation, the removal of opposition polling agents through the use of force, the blatant stuffing of ballot boxes in full view of observers/monitors/ voters, the physical assault of opponents and members of the Media, and the sheer brute force of the PA's violent presence in the vicinity of polling booths, have, in the considered view of CMEV, irrevocably undermined the validity of this election as an exercise of the public's free and fair choice.

"The scale and magnitude of the violence as reported both directly to CMEV and through the police, other independent monitors and political parties is unprecedented for an election of its kind even in Sri Lanka's troubled past. Moverover, this election is not taking place in the war arena, nor is there a breakdown of civil society due to an insurrection of armed youth. In comparison to the Local Government Elections of 1983, 1991 and 1997, as well as the 1993 Provincial Council election, election day violations in the 1999 Wayamba Election appear to be greater in magnitude and scope.

"The Police appears to be unwilling and unable to check the violence. In a number of the more serious incidents, they too were among the by-standers, and have expressed feelings of frustration and helplessness to CMEV monitors on the spot. The Government seems to have pinned its faith in the end result of all this violence and election fraud, oblivious to the toll on its own credibility and the very democratic electoral process that brought it into power."

There were other political parties and organisations which reacted and condemned the election violence.

The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) has questioned the validity of the elections taking to consideration the poll rigging.

MEP Leader Dinesh Gunerwardene said it is sad to note that the voter had been deprived of his right to excerise his free vote by armed groups under patronage of ruling VIPs.

"The MEP expressed grave concern on the democratic electoral process, before handing over the nominations and before the NWP elections. The MEP called upon all political parties to demand and force the PA to hold the elections on the same day in respect of the five provincial councils where nominations had been called long prior to the nominations for the NWP Provincial Council Elections. We also appealed and emphasised in the manner the Commissioner of Elections and other officials had been placed prior to the elections, and it was proved with the outcome of the elections," he said.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna was another victim of election violence and malpractices.

JVP's chief spokesman Wimal Weerawansa told The Sunday Times: "I believe that after the 1982 referendum, 'the kalagedi laampu dance', the record established by the UNP on rigged elections was broken this time by the PA in Wayamba. In the art of rigging elections the PA is way ahead of the UNP.

"The public is very much against this kind of robbery of elections. The government has fallen into a bad position. That is why the top politicos are jumping about like drug frenzied monkeys.

"If we can create resistance among the people and international disapproval of what has been done we can work to avoid a repetition taking place in the future."

The Muslim United Liberation Front (MULF) which contested the Wayamba polls was another party affected by violence.

MULF General Secretary Mujeebur Rahman said: "Now we have no faith in elections. The North East elections will be worse than this election. As a Muslim Youth party we are wondering whether it will be pointless. And we have to think if there is another way to solve Muslims' problems. "

Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera said: "With the Wayamba elections the people's belief in democracy as well as the people's belief in elections fell to the lowest level. In future elections, it will be thuggery and weapons that will win. The people's vote was reduced to the level of a joke.

"The unfair results obtained in the Wayamba elections should be legally annulled and if a suitable background for another election cannot be found in the Wayamba, no faith can be placed by the people on elections held under these circumstances, in the future."

In general the people's verdict was heard through widespread condemnation on the violent conduct of Wayamba polls.


Poll Mess

“On visiting Puttalam and Chilaw in the wake of the Wayamba Provincial Council elections, we found the people angry, dismayed and disillusioned,” reports Hiranthi Fernando who visited the area. 
Here is her report:

The people were indignant about the loss of their right to vote. They were also upset by the violence that had been unleashed in their villages by gangs of thugs. The fear psychosis of the past seemed to have invaded the province. Although the people were ready to come out with their experiences, most did not wish to be identified in fear of reprisals against them or their families.

Everywhere we went, the stories were the same. Gangs had arrived at the polling booths armed with guns, poles, clubs or knives. Voters, including women, had been intimidated and even assaulted and their polling cards snatched. Polling agents were chased away, and presiding officers and police personnel were threatened and the books of ballot papers taken. 

The boxes were stuffed with illegal votes, while the officials looked on helplessly. In some cases the ballot papers were taken away and marked outside and brought back to be stuffed into the ballot boxes. Practically every polling booth in the area had some problem. 

“Never have we seen or heard of anything like this in our area,”said a voter from Kalpitiya , who naturally did not wish to be named. A P.A. supporter, he was stationed at one of the booths as a helper and so witnessed the entire farce. “This is not impersonation of voters but blatant stuffing of the ballot boxes. We have lost all confidence in elections. Drunkards and twelve year old boys were given ballot papers to vote. Democracy has been defeated,” he lamented.

A resident of Chilaw, who was a member of a monitoring group hat had visited 80% of the polling booths in the Chilaw area, said almost every station had incidents of thugs entering by force, intimidation and election malpractices. According to reports he received, most of these gang members were not from the area but were Samurdhi Niyamakas and those who had come with Ministers. In the Puttalam town, Leader of Independent Group 2, Halid said that only three polling booths were free from such malpractices. In two of them the Senior Presiding Officer and the police personnel stood firm against the intruders, despite threats and managed to get rid of them.

Independent Group 2, candidate No1, Aslam related an incident he witnessed when the polling booth at Zahira College was stormed by a gang. This was just one example of many such incidents, some of which were more violent. “They came in five vehicles and entered forcibly. The P.A. Organiser and the Muslim Congress Organiser came inside and took the guns from the policemen. Pushing the Senior Presiding Officer aside, they grabbed the books of ballot papers They called their crowd in and started marking, punching and putting in the ballot papers. I complained to the Assistant Election Commissioner in Puttalam. By the time the Commissioner came, the damage was done,” he said. Mr. Aslam, gave a letter to the Government Agent requesting the invalidation of this election.

A resident of the area who did not wish to be identified confirmed the incident at the Zahira College booth. “I went along with my daughter to vote early in the morning. There was no problem then. Sometime later, I saw a number of people running. About 35 women had come to cast their votes. A youth came to them and said they could not vote. I heard the sound of gunshots and a commotion near the centre. However I did not venture out. When my son went to cast his vote at about 2 p.m., his vote had been already cast,” he said.

This resident who had been a government servant for 35 years, said he had never seen this kind of incident before.“During this election, we felt like our eyes were being plucked out forcibly by someone,” he said.

After the stuffing of votes, some of the gang had thrown away the counterfoils of the ballot books. In their rush to put in votes, some of the marked ballot papers had also been dropped. These were picked up by bystanders and some have come into our possession. Mr. Mubarak, a long-time resident of Puttalam says that several books of counterfoils were found discarded and schoolboys had picked them up. There was even an unused book of ballot papers. 

People of the area say the election has become a joke. The large scale and blatant stuffing of ballot boxes was evident when even the ballot papers which were not supposed to be taken out of the booth, were found littered along the streets. 

Although we tried to have an interview with the Elections Commissioner, to show him these documents, we were informed that he could not give any interviews till Monday. We tried to speak to him on the telephone but a peon in the office told us he was not speaking to the press because of the case regarding the other Provincial Councils. 

Although we insisted that this had nothing to do with the other elections, it was of no avail. The Deputy Commissioner whom we then contacted said there had been reports of stuffing ballot boxes from the Presiding Officers of about 140 stations in Kurunegala and 70 stations in Puttalam. He said he did not have the exact figures because they were with the Commissioner. Where they had received such complaints the stuffed votes had been removed he said.

See  more  on  Wayaba  Elections


US voices concern

“The United States is naturally concerned about news reports of violence, surrounding the election campaign and about allegations of voting day irregularities,” a US Embassy spokesman declared yesterday.

“The United States on principle believes that free and fair elections are necessary for the functioning of democracy.

“We are waiting for the final public reports by election observers including PAFFREL and CMEV, groups which have experience in election monitoring and have solid reputations.

“We trust that the responsible authorities will review the allegations and study the observers’ reports and take necessary steps to ensure public confidence in the electoral system,” he said.
 


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