Sri Lanka election called 'mandate' to defeat rebel Tamil Tigers

The island's first elections in two decades had been intended as a test of the peacemaking process with the breakaway fighters.

By Mian Ridge

posted May 12, 2008 at 10:10 am EDT

Sri Lanka's government has triumphed in the first provincial elections to be held in the east of the island in two decades.

Saturday's elections were held in a region that until last year was partly controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), more commonly known as the Tamil Tigers. The vote is a key plank in the government's campaign against the rebels: to introduce limited devolution of power to the island while crushing the Tigers with military force.

The ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won 20 of the 37 seats in the new Provincial Council. It achieved this through an alliance with the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), a party made up of Tiger defectors known for their recruitment of child soldiers and for human rights violations.

Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, said his party's victory was a "mandate" for the government to continue its war against the Tigers and to defeat them in the north, reported Bloomberg. Since it successfully drove the rebels from the east last summer, the government has turned its guns on the Tigers' northern lair, an area known as the "Wanni."

Observers, however, reported the widespread view that the election was neither free nor fair, reported Agence France-Presse. The criticisms centred on the TMVP, which remained armed during the electioneering process.

Although TMVP leaders say they have embraced the democratic process, they continue to be accused of murder, harassing voters and opposition candidates and kidnapping children to deploy as fighters.

Sunanda Deshapriya of the Free Media Movement (FMM), a Sri Lankan rights group, listed a catalogue of irregularities – including ballot box stuffing, intimidation, and beatings.

"Police said they are helpless because these people are backed by powerful politicians," he said. "Unfortunately, people cannot express their views freely. These polls were not free and fair."

Similar complaints were made by two other non-governmental organisations – People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFRELL) and the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV).

"People are really frightened to go out and vote," said PAFFRELL chairman Kingsley Rodrigo, supporting complaints by opposition parties that President Rajapakse and his allies were determined to win at all costs.

The main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), which joined ranks for the eastern elections with Sri Lanka's biggest Muslim party, the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC), accused the government of "serious malpractices" including vote rigging, according to The Island, an online Sri Lankan paper.

Sri Lanka's Nation newspaper, meanwhile, reported that numerous citizens said they had been denied voting cards. Some had lost their possessions when they were displaced by the war; others had lost their cards in the 2004 tsunami and had not been given replacements. The paper also reported high levels of tension on election day throughout the eastern province's three districts – Trincomalee, Ampara, and Batticaloa.

Several incidents of nasty violence also marred the elections, reported the Associated Press, which said that four members of one family, supporters of the opposition, were badly burned when a bottle of acid was thrown into their home.

The Hindu newspaper – published in India – said there had been 64 incidents of violence on election day, according to the Center for Monitoring Election Violence. Some 48 were classified as "major."

The Tigers also played a deadly role in the violence. Early Saturday, a group of underwater suicide bombers known as the "Black Tigers" bombed and sank an empty Navy cargo ship in Trincomalee harbor, reported Reuters. This followed the bombing of a cafe in Ampara on Friday, in which 11 people were killed.

But a lyrical editorial in the island's Sunday Times newspaper said that despite reports of rigging, intimidation, and violence, a devolved, democratic east – which has a broadly equal mix of Tamils, Sinhalese, and Muslims – could still offer a model of how a peaceful Sri Lanka might one day look.

The Eastern Province with its rare, if not, unique blend of communities, cultures and languages had the potential to be the very heart - not just the showpiece but the centrepiece – of all the beauty of unity in diversity. In the east, there are Tamil villages where the people speak Sinhala fluently and Sinhala villages where the people speak Tamil fluently.

…Whatever the results our plea – and in voicing it we know we are voicing the will of millions of Sri Lankans – is that the promises of developing the east and providing better living facilities to the people would be kept and it would really be a new dawn for them. If power is really devolved to the east and development takes place there at a rapid pace, it would be a major step in defeating separatism and bringing about the unity in diversity that we all dream of.