Can Elections Commissioner ensure a free and fair poll?

The incidents of violence reported from the North Western Province and more importantly, the forcible seizure of polling cards,raise the all important question on the North Western Province poll: Can a free and fair election be held ?. Till Wednesday over four thousand five hundred polling cards had been forcibly removed from two sub- post offices at Uduppuwa and Bangadeniya. At the time of writing these comments on Thursday, another such incident was reported from a sub post office at Kottantivu where an armed gang had removed another stock of polling cards, the amount of which had not been estimated.

Six hundred additional policemen who were moved into the province, appeals of political leaders and the Catholic Clergy -- the only province that has a Catholic majority -- have had no effect. The political Neanderthals are on the rampage and this would not go on without the blessings of political bosses who are also crying out aloud in public against violence. The number of incidents of violence at the time of writing had totted up to 280. Till Wednesday the UNP had registered 149 complaints while the PA had registered 97. These statistics have a similarity to the official statistics of casualties released by our erstwhile government spokesmen on casualties on terrorist violence -- a doctored balance being maintained for reasons obvious.

The theft of polling cards need not necessarily lead to impersonation because a person is entitled to ask for a ballot paper and cast his vote without presenting a polling card. Even with a polling card a voter can be challenged for impersonation. But such niceties can only be observed under ideal conditions of polling and it is now obvious from the run up to the polls that conditions are going to be far from ideal.

The UNP's conduct at the polls , particularly after 1977 has been deplorable, to say the least. It was only during the 1994 presidential and parliamentary elections that a fair poll under President D.B. Wijetunga, who was not running for office, took place. The peculiar circumstances under which the polls of 1994 were held with the ruling party's top rankers being killed enabled a fair election to be held for Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga and the PA to triumph. President Kumaratunga and other PA leaders acted commendably after winning elections by preventing violence being unleashed on UNPers in defeat through their personal appeals and intervention.

But such good developments are transient in this country.Now, we have full scale political neanderthalism on the rampage in the NWP.The PA propagandists are crying blue in the face, accusing UNPers of rampaging through the electorate. But even to the political naive, both Sri Lankan and foreign, it will be apparent that in Third World countries such as ours, a political party in the opposition cannot indulge in political violence for long without being apprehended by the law enforcers who are under the dictates of the ruling party leaders and their goons. Accusations of opposition political parties attempting to rig and win elections is stuff for the Theatre of the Absurd. The responsibility of conducting a free and fair election lies with the government in power.

The Elections Commissioner, Mr. Dayananda Dissanayake, should at this stage give serious consideration to whether he could conduct a free and fair election that is expected from those who hold his office. Experienced political observers note that what we are now going through has much similarity to the initial phases of elections that were rigged

The first phase begins with the tampering of electoral registers, long before an election is due. The next phase begins after handing over of nomination papers. This is the phase we are going through where violence is unleashed to scare voters and keep them at home.

Come election day and the voters are told not to step outside their homes or face dire consequences. Polling agents of opposition parties are abducted or threatened with severe repercussions, if they do their duty. In consequence, many polling stations are left unmanned by opposition parties' polling agents .And this is where stolen polling cards count. If there are no polling agents to object to those carrying stolen polling cards then it could well be that election officers may not be inclined to seize these cards.

After the polls curfew is declared. Opposition polling agents may not be there to accompany the ballot boxes to the counting centers. The boxes could be taken elsewhere by security personnel transporting the boxes -- to police stations as it happened in 1989 and 1990 elections -- and stuffed there. After that, as we Sri Lankans say: The Match is Over.

With definite signs of history repeating itself, the Elections Commissioner should seriously consider whether a free and fair poll could be held on January 25 and if not make a public declaration to this effect.