PRE POLL SUBVERSION: Tamil factor irks some...

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Only two weeks left for elections and the Elections Commissioner is desperately trying to stop the government from misusing state property as the Rajapaksa campaign musters everything at its disposal to obtain a win one way or another.

Action against SLBC and SLRC

The Election Commissioners attention has been drawn towards the SLRC and SLBC administration that is ignoring the Competent Authority’s order to cancel several programmes that violates the 17th amendment, claim Department sources. Rupavahini Chairman, Ariyarathna Ethugala who is a professor of Mass Communication at the University of Kelaniya has violated the election law and undermined the Commissioner’s authority by airing the same programmes under different titles at different time slots, and is continuing a massive mud slinging campaign.
“Despite the continuous complaints by the Rupavahini Trade Unions the Chairman is continuing to air programmes that use hate language and he is permitting the government to misuse SLRC resources,” a SLRC trade unionist said. “ We also have learnt that the signal strength of channel Eye was reduced during General Sarath Fonseka’s speech telecast on Channel Eye and as a result people from rural areas were not able to view the programme .”
Meanwhile, officials of the Department of Elections claimed that they had received many complaints from the SLRC trade unions regarding many election law violations. “We are aware of this,” claimed Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Elections, W. P Sumanasiri. “The Commissioner as well as the Competent Authority will take immediate action about this and other reported malpractices. We are also looking at the 4000 duplicated IDP long distance applications as well; although we stopped that from happening we are looking at who is behind this.”

Vote rigging

Over 100 000 resettled IDPs will lose their franchise and there is a systematic plan to use their polling cards for election malpractices, election monitors claim. In a tour of the North, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon claims that they came across many resettled families whose polling cards will be sent to the Menik Farm camp.
“We toured Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu and visited many villages where IDPs have been resettled. Many have registered for distant voting from Menik Farm but suddenly they have been resettled hundreds of kilometers away from Menik Farm.
So thousands of polling cards will go to Menik Farm and considering the malpractices regarding temporary identity cards, it is possible that many of these polling cards will be used for rigging,” he said.
“Despite the circular there are still thousands of cut outs especially in Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Moneragala and Badulla. The situation is worse in Anuradhapura’’ claimed Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CaFFE) Spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon, saying “no cutouts have been removed and some new ones have even come up. The police are ‘protecting’ the cutouts of Mahinda Rajapaksa and they are misusing state property. Over 90 vehicles are being used for the president’s election campaign in Anuradhapura alone.”
“A few weeks ago SSP J. R Jayawardana was transferred from Ampara because he refused to follow directives from above, and the Elections Commissioner had to step in to cancel the transfer. But in the last few days a lot of cutouts have been erected in Ampara too,” he said.
Fonseka’s camp alleges that the government has intensified its systematic campaign to intimidate its supporters; as the presidential election reaches its final stage the momentum suddenly seems to have shifted towards Fonseka with the extension of support from the TNA and Batticaloa Mayor Sivageetha Prabakaran. Other members of the TMVP including Eastern Provincial Council Chief minister TMVP leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan are set to extend their support to Fonseka in the coming week sources from the Fonseka’s camp say.
There has been an increase in violence around the country with the police in most instances turning a blind eye . Several complaints have been lodged against supporters of both camps but nothing concrete has come out of it so far.

Advertising campaign

Pradeep Amirthanayagam, a former Rupavahini news presenter, who is handling the advertising campaign for General Sarath Fonseka has been questioned by the CID Friday night.
Meanwhile, R. Yogaraja who has been instrumental in winning the support of Tamil politicians for Fonseka’s camp predicted that more TMVP leaders will follow Batticaloa Mayor Sivageetha Prabakaran. He added that the TMVP leadership including TMVP leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan are disgruntled with the Rajapaksa administration.
“When we started our campaign on December 18 there was no momentum, but after a while with the arrival of Arjuna Ranatunga and ceaseless campaigning there was a wave.
The Tamils hate this government and are urging their leaders to support Fonseka to make a change. I know that many TMVP members and leaders are angry because the president took them into their fold and stifled their political activism.
They have to answer to their supporters who are grumbling all the time and now they are demanding that the TMVP should support Fonseka.”