Ruse to obtain top preference numbers

• Some Candidates are not using posters, cutouts
• Former UNP MP Imithiaz Bakeer Markar the latest victim
• The UNP Moneragala list likely to be declared invalid
• Ranil decided to strip Madduma Bandara of all party offices

The Muslim candidates having the initial `A’ or the first name starting with `A’ such as Abdul, Ahamed, Ashraff, or Ali contesting the coming election are in for a special advantage: they invariably get numbers high up (in the numerical order) on the district preference lists. The lure of this advantage had led some candidates to resort to the ruse of adding a false first name beginning with the letter `A’ to the name when entering the full name on the nomination paper, posing an unexpected problem to the election authorities. These errant candidates had been able to get away with this fraudulent act as they were not required to produce their birth certificate along with the nomination papers. However, at the PC elections the candidates were required to furnish their birth certificates when submitting their nominations and the preference numbers were assigned to them according to the alphabetical order of the names as given in the birth certificates. This procedure was not followed when allocating preference numbers to candidates contesting the coming general election.

The biggest `A- name’ beneficiary from the UPFA in the Colombo district is Minister A.H.M. Fowzie who is heading the preference list as number 1. Former deputy city Mayor Azad Salley, who recently joined the SLFP, is the recipient of preference number 2 on the Colombo District UPFA list. SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem heads the UNP preference list for Mahanuwara District and Minister Ferial Ashraff the UPFA list for Digamadulla.

Move to remove ban
The allocation of preference numbers last week saw the candidates swinging into action with new vigour. Banners, posters and cutouts of candidates highlighting the preference number put up in public places all over the country are a commonplace sight today. The Elections Commissioner has tabooed the display of election propaganda material such as cutouts and posters in terms of the provisions in the Parliamentary General Elections Act. He had provided over Rs.20 million to Police to carry out the task of removing these illegal propaganda devices on display. However, candidates continue to display, cutouts, posters etc. in defiance of the ban.
Some candidates like Karu Jayasuriya, Milinda Moragoda and Patali Champika Ranawaka are not using posters, cutouts etc. for election propaganda.

Lifting the ban on the display of propaganda devises by candidates by repealing the relevant provisions in the General Parliamentary Elections Act is now receiving the attention of the government. UPFA General Secretary, Susil Premajayantha says banners and the cutouts are the best mode available to candidates to publicise their preference numbers. “They can familiarise the voters with their preference numbers by circulating handbills. But this is a costly exercise which some candidates cannot afford,” says Minister Premajayantha.

Gampaha District UPFA group leader, Basil Rajapaksa also says that posters and cutouts are very effective as election propaganda devices. He concedes that newspapers and electronic media are also productive mediums for propaganda purposes. However, candidates would find newspapers, TV and radio advertisements beyond their means. He believes that all political parties will unanimously agree to repeal the election laws to lift the ban on cutouts and posters.

However, election monitors point out that cutouts and posters, apart from involving high costs, disfigure parapet walls and other spaces in public places causing damage to the environment and would also often lead to clashes between the supporters of candidates.

Question mark
The UNP nomination list for the Moneragala list is likely to be declared invalid by the election authorities, according to Sirikotha sources. The allegation that the name of one candidate on the nomination list had been typexed to replace it with the name of another candidate and the initials of the UNP General Secretary, Tissa Attanayake had been forged purportedly to authenticate the typex erasure, has given rise to this possibility. There had been no objection to this nomination list when the Moneragala UNP organiser and Moneragala UNF District group leader handed it to the Moneragala Returning Officer on February 26. This list did not carry the name of Ananda Tissakuttiarachchi who had been picked as a candidate for the Moneragala District by the party. Tissakuttiarachchi charged that his name, obliterated using the white correction fluid Typex, had been substituted with the name of another candidate.

Axe on Bandara?
Moneragala District UNF group leader, Ranjith Madduma Bandara later told the media that it was the same nomination list he received from the party headquarters that he handed over to the Moneragala returning officer and he was not aware of alterations when he filed it with the returning officer.

Tissakuttiarachchi, who contested the last elections to the Uwa PC, was elected by a large number of votes. Ranjith Madduma Bandara and several other candidates had objected to Tissakuttiarachchi being fielded on the Moneragala UNP list at this General Election. SLFP (M) Leader Mangala Samaraweera had presented him as a candidate from his party to the UNF nomination board and Ranil Wickremesinghe had directed party General Secretary Tissa Attanayake to include his name in the Moneragala UNP District list for this election.

Tissakuttuarachchi blames Ranjith Madduma Bandara for replacing his name with another name on the nomination list. He says that he is planning to seek an order from courts directing the Elections Commissioner to invalidate the nomination list. UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had ordered an inquiry into this matter and Tissa Attanayake says that the name of Tissakuttiarachchi appears on the UNP’s Moneragala District nomination list he had handed over to the Moneragala District group leader. Ranil Wickremesinghe has decided to strip Madduma Bandara of all party offices he is holding now. The UNP Working Committee, which met last Friday, was expected to take a hard decision about Madduma Bandara.

Meanwhile, the UNF had taken a decision to appoint every group leader of the district that the party is in the fray as its district leader as well. Accordingly, the district group leaders were presented with letters of appointment as district leaders as well. However, a report on Thursday said that Ranil Wickremesinghe had instructed the Sirikotha officials not to hand the letter of appointment as the Moneragala district leader to Ranjith Madduma Bandara which was ready for issue.

The same day, Madduma Bandara, who had convened a meeting of the UNF candidates and party activists of the Moneragala district, had told them that the party leadership, acting on an allegation made by someone outside the party, had relieved him of all party positions in the district even without holding an inquiry.

The local UNP leaders, who had attended this meeting, had taken up the position that it is a great injustice to take disciplinary action on an allegation made by a member of the SLFP (M) against Madduma Bandara who had remained loyal to the party even when a large number of UNP stalwarts crossed over to the government. The UNP supporters in Moneragala also staged a protest against the action taken by the party leadership to relieve Madduma Bandara of the party positions he held in the district. Meanwhile, a group of supporters of Tissakuttiarachchi had also staged a demonstration in Moneragala against Madduma Bandara. It is quite possible there would be more political developments resulting from this issue which would certainly affect the UNF election campaign in the district.

Moneragala District former MP and Moneragala party organiser Madduma Bandara is considered a member of the anti-Ranil group in the UNP. According to party insiders, Ranil has no faith in Madduma Bandara who happens to be a nephew of Dharmadasa Banda who crossed over to the government sometime ago. Therefore, this incident has offered the party leadership a plausible excuse to expel Madduma Bandara from the party.

Imithiaz sidelined again
Sirikotha sources also say that former MP Imithiaz Bakeer Markar, who had returned to active politics at the last presidential election after a long spell of absence from the political arena, has become the latest victim of persecution by the party leadership. The party had initially decided to field Imithiaz on the UNF national list, but his name had been dropped at eleventh hour.

Imithiaz entered politics as an UNPer while being a student of Ananda College, Colombo following in the footsteps of his father, a former Speaker Alhaj Bakeer Markar, and he later took the initiative to found the UNP Youth League at the Kelaniya University while doing his higher studies. He took to active politics after passing out of the university when he successfully contested on the UNP Kalutara District list as the party organiser for Beruwela. He also functioned as the deputy minister of housing in the Premadasa Government. He was returned to parliament at the 2001 general election and was appointed media minister of the UNP Government led by Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Imithiaz, who was very unhappy over the interference in the affairs of the Media Ministry by the prime minister’s media unit and the step motherly treatment meted out to the Arab countries by the then Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, refused to contest the 2004 general election and said adieu to active politics in disgust. He received invitations to join the government, but he never wanted to leave the UNP. He returned to active politics at the last presidential election and he functioned as a member of the UNF nomination board that selected the candidates for the coming election.

Ranil Wickremesinghe had initially included the name of Imithiaz in the UNF national list for this election. How and why his name had been dropped from the list is a secret to even the party front-liners.
According to UNP insiders, the name of Imithiaz Bakeer Markar had been deleted from the UNF national list for his `sin’ of raising his voice as the President of the Sri Lanka Society for Solidarity with Palestine against the injustice meted out to the Palestinians. There is an impression that has gained ground among the Muslims that Ranil Wickremesinghe is averse to maintaining cordial relations with Arab countries because of his pro-American policy. The Muslims, who are shocked that the name of Imithiaz has been dropped from the UNF national list, say this action confirms the anti-Arab attitude of Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Wickremesinghe, who had reason to believe that Imithiaz Bakeer Markar was unhappy over the deletion of his name from the national list had sent for him and held a discussion with him to soothe his ruffled feelings. On this occasion, Ranil had asked Imithiaz to take charge of the media unit of the party. Imithiaz, who had turned down this request, had told Ranil that he is remaining in the party because he hails from a family loyal to the UNP for generations and also due to his keenness to become the voice of his community within the party.

Under fire
Meanwhile, the manner in which the UNF national list has been prepared has come under fire from party seniors. The name of Joseph Michael Perera, who is a very senior leader, occupies slot 3 below that of a top official of a private bank Iran Wickremeratne who has been placed at 2.

The leadership has also come in for flak for the failure to field a trade union leader of the party on the national list. On previous occasions, the name of trade union leader Sirinal de Mel figured. The name of another trade union leader Lal Perera too had been proposed this time round. However, the party leadership had knocked off both names. The party stalwarts also protest the inclusion of the names of K.N.Choksy and Tilak Marapana overlooking a person like Upul Jayasuriya, a resourceful person of the party who appears as counsel in cases that the party has a stake in.

The UNP front-liners charge that the party leadership has given more weight to personal friendship than to qualifications in selecting candidates.
Former Kurunegala District MP, M.A. Alavi, a popular Muslim leader in the district has been accommodated on the UNF national list.
Gamini Jayawickrama Perera had made a strong case for fielding Alavi on the Kurunegala District list. But UNP heavyweights in Kurunegala say that his name had in fact been included as he could be a threat to the chances of Viraj Akila Kariyawasam winning a seat.

A non-event
President Mahinda Rajapaksa had invited former Kalutara District MP, Tilak Karunaratne to contest on the UPFA ticket in the Kalutara District.
Karunaratne, who started his political career in the SLFP, later crossed over to the UNP. He again quit the UNP to join the Hela Urumaya. Later he returned to the UNP and functioned as its treasurer. However, he left the UNP again in protest against the UNP policy over the North-East war and the ceasefire agreement, and distanced himself from active politics.

Tilak Karunaratne hailed the firm and able leadership given by President Rajapaksa to end the protracted war. Meanwhile, the President invited him to contest on the UPFA as he considered the contribution that an intellectual like Karunaratne could make towards national life could be immense and invaluable.
Karunaratne accepted the invitation extended by President Rajapaksa. However, several ministers, who felt that Karunaratne’s return to politics could be a threat to their political survival, had made representations to the President against fielding him on the Kalutara district UPFA list. As a result, his name has been deleted from the UPFA Kalutara district list at the last moment.

Supporters quit
The continuing exodus of top party front-liners, members, organisers and activists from the SLFP (M) has placed its leader Mangala Samaraweera in an unenviably embarrassing situation.
His move to contest in the Matara District under the `Elephant’ symbol as the UNF district leader has, in fact, accelerated this exodus.

It was Samaraweera who took the initiative to bring together the UNP, JVP and several other Muslim and Tamil political parties to found the Joint Opposition Alliance and to field General Sarath Fonseka as the common opposition candidate at the recent presidential election. Mangala had planned to hold the constituent parties of the Joint Opposition Alliance together to take on the UPFA as one entity under the `Swan’ symbol at this general election as well. But the decision by the UNP to contest as the UNF under the `Elephant’ symbol shattered Mangala’s hopes. Finally, he was compelled to contest under the `Elephant’ symbol of the UNP for his own political survival. Close associates of Mangala Samaraweera and several SLFP (M) activists, who found themselves left in the lurch by their leader’s actions, later began quitting the party. SLFP (M) national organiser Tiran Alles was one of them.

Tiran Alles, one of his closest allies quit the party to join the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by General Fonseka. He is now a national list candidate of the DNA.The next to defect was SLFP (M) administrative secretary, Dr. Sisil Bandara Senaratne. Sisil Bandara and 31 SLFP (M) activists later called on President Rajapaksa along with Dr. Rajitha Senaratne and obtained the SLFP membership.

Sripathi’s wife
Meanwhile, Dilrukshi Suriarachchi, widow of the late Sripathi Suriarachchi, who is contesting as a UNF candidate in the Gampaha District on the request of Mangala Suriarachchi, yesterday met President Rajapaksa and pledged her support to the government. She earlier quit the SLFP (M). In a press release issued last week, she charged that Mangala Samaraweera, who destroyed her husband by inveigling him into opposition politics, had now betrayed his party by joining the UNF.

Sisil Senaratne, who quit the SLFP (M) along with the 31 dissidents, told a recent media briefing in Colombo that Mangala now has only one follower in the party - Upulangani Malagamuwa who is contesting on the UNP list for Kurunegala. He recalled that Mangala’s father Mahanama Samaraweera ended his political career in the UNP after quitting the SLFP where he made his political debut. “Mangala’s last political refuge too will be the UNP,” he predicted.

Defeatist mindset
The UNP, which teamed up with several opposition political parties including the SLMC, DPF and the SLFP (M) under the banner of the UNF to pose a formidable threat to the UPFA, is in the running in this general election in 22 districts. However, statements that the UNP leaders are making these days betray their defeatist mindset.

UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya had told a recent propaganda meeting that the UNP is looking forward to forming a government with the support of other opposition parties after this general election.
Former Mahanuwara District MP, Lakshman Kiriella had also said that they would form a government by making up 113 seats in parliament with the support of other opposition parties.

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had appealed to people not to give a two thirds majority to the government. Doesn’t his statement imply that the UPFA will certainly romp home and Ranil’s appeal is that the government should not be given a two thirds majority?