Stop this Election Violence

There are ominous signs that the current election campaigns are leading to some unbridled violence. One citizen was killed when an unknown group shot at a bus carrying people to an election meeting in Tangalle which is in the President’s own electorate.  The victim was a supporter of Mr Sajith Premadasa who is promoting the campaign of General Fonseka. Last week there were several incidents of violence against the supporters of the campaign for General Fonseka. UNP and JVP campaign offices have been smashed, their billboards and banners have been vandalized and buses carrying supporters to their meetings have been shot at by armed masked men. Opposition public meetings have been disrupted. These attacks are directed at discouraging the voters from going to vote at the elections for the common opposition candidate who has obviously posed a serious threat to the incumbent president’s re-election.  The culprits are either Para militaries or underworld criminals. They remind the public of the white van syndrome where Tamils and journalists both Sinhala and Tamil were abducted and killed and their bodies dumped off the beaten track. The President is either unwilling or unable to stop such attacks. What could be the motive of such attacks? Is it to frighten people from voting for the Common candidate? Some would say they are a prelude to attempts to cancel the holding of the election through resort to widespread violence. The Opposition says the President has failed to maintain the Rule of Law, which is the bedrock of democracy. They point to his failure to bring to book the killers of journalists including Lasantha Wickrematinge. The President is reported to have ordered the removal of his life size cut-outs. But they still remain calling into question his credibility or competence, despite being a leader with forty years experience in politics. The incumbent President is morally and legally bound to ensure that there is an election free of violence. This same President took an oath to uphold the Constitution. But he did not appoint the Constitutional Council under the 17th Amendment. He is violating many other provisions of the Constitution How can any sensible citizen vote for a man who has shown absolute contempt for the Constitution and violated it several and continues to violate it. What sort of credibility does he have? I cannot understand educated persons believing his word. The President is hoping he can fool all the people all the time. Village yakkos may believe him but how can educated persons believe him. He and his family have plundered the resources of the State.

Let us learn from the election violence which prevailed in other countries like Kenya, the Philippines and Iran in recent years.  In Aceh during the elections that followed the political settlement violence was unleashed against the former Free Aceh movement members. Let us not allow the election to be vitiated by excessive violence as in Kenya where the election result was disputed after the election of December 2007.  The defeated Opposition alleged rigging and refused to accept the result. There were mass demonstrations by the Opposition.  Kenya’s coalition government did not take any action despite over a thousand people being killed, hundreds of thousands displaced amid the bloodshed and there was massive loss and damage to property.

Considering the inadequate national concern for the ongoing pre-election violence on the part of our people, the international community should urgently respond with an appeal to the government to stop this violence. The US Ambassador alone has made an appeal. It is time our big neighbor India does the same whatever its inhibitions, for democracy must be preserved for the good of the sub-continent.

The Kenyan government did not pay any attention to the violence in the elections held there in December 2007.and ignored the appeals by the International community. Towards the end of last year the International Criminal Court said it would go into the complaints made by the Opposition and the representatives of the victims. The crimes against humanity during election violence could be indicted in The Hague as early as 2010.The prosecutor was compelled to act as a result of Kenya’s failure to take action against the main perpetrators through its own courts. Do we like to see a similar situation?

Important members of the government and the Armed Forces are already under suspicion of having committed war crimes. If election violence spirals out of control it could even take ethic dimensions as in Kenya. There would then be pressure for world powers to intervene in our domestic affairs. There could even be pressure by international NGOs for imposing economic sanctions against the country. The government should bear these risks in mind and urge the President’s supporters to stop such attacks. The Opposition candidate should urge his supporters to exercise the utmost restraint. There should not be retaliatory attacks. The Lord has said that revenge is His and that the victims should not resort to counter violence but bear up with his assurance that justice will triumph in the end. Let us pray that the violence which ended only six months ago does not have resurgence this time in the South among the Sinhala population.

The government must not treat this issue of elections violence lightly. There is no provision for a Caretaker government in the Constitution and the President is morally and legally bound to uphold the provisions of the Constitution which he promised to follow when taking oaths. He must ensure that there is a peaceful, fair and free  democratic election. Sadly his failure would only show that the Oppositions charges are valid.

The International Crisis Group reported on the possibility of election violence in Ethiopia before planned elections. The US Government has urged the government to hold a peaceful election. Our big brother India should follow the example and with its clout should prevail on the government to check election violence before it escalates.