Editorial - If elections are held let them be free and fair

Opposition leaders and civic rights groups are calling for the appointment of an Independent Elections Commission, an Independent Public Services Commission and an Independent Police Commission before elections are held to any of the provincial councils. These independent commissions could be appointed in terms of the 17th Amendment whereby an all-party Constitutional Council will make the appointments and the President will approve them. When elections were last held on different dates to different provincial councils, there were no independent commissions, and this left room for blatant and widespread abuse of election laws by the ruling party.

State vehicles, facilities and resources were used and abused wholesale for the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), as reported with evidence by independent election monitoring groups. With no Independent Police Commission, the police did not take or dared not take action against outright abuse of election laws. Therefore serious questions were raised about the moral validity of the results though there was widespread public support for the UPFA in the afterglow of the victory in the war. Adding to it was the absence of a credible alternative with the opposition being weak and divided.



Today the situation is different. With the cost of living soaring and the economy at breaking point while those in the UPFA or linked to it are involved in rampant corruption and fraud, public support for the Government has gone down significantly. If free and fair elections are held under an independent commission, the UPFA is not likely to come anywhere near the clean sweep it achieved in the last elections to the provincial councils. Besides the appointment of independent commissions, effective action needs to be taken to restore the Rule of Law which has broken down.

For instance a minister publicly threatened to break the legs of journalists who criticize the Government and a super minister said the SLFP, the main party in the ruling alliance, could not take any disciplinary action against the minister who had brazenly threatened to break the law. The senior minister said only the President could take action in this case. Besides this, we have seen hundreds of cases in recent years where the police take action or do not take action in criminal cases depending on which side of the political fence the culprits are.

Elections are a key factor in democracy but if elections are not free and fair they are an insult to democracy and cause damage to it. During the past few years democracy has been battered and it cannot stand more blows.