Ranil showed up at Parliament on February 23 like a bully in a bazaar. He asserted that neither the vote nor the elections have been postponed. With that speech, he sought to disparage the Election Commission. This was also directed at Saliya Peiris, an attorney at law for the Election Commission. Even though money was set aside for the vote, he claimed that if there is no money, no money can be given. He also made the mocking remark that the court would be unable to raise money for the election. ‘Shut up and sit down,’ he commanded the opposition members.
While the Supreme Court was deliberating a petition regarding the election’s postponement, Ranil entered Parliament and turned into a bully in the bazaar. When attorney Saliya Peiris, who represented the Election Commission, requested a date closer to the election’s scheduled date of March 9, when the Supreme Court postponed the trial until the month of May. The same day, Ranil turned abusive in the parliament’s bazaar, declaring, as “This is my kingdom,” “That mountain is mine, this mountain is also mine, the entire mountain range is mine…”
After the Election Commission announced the election, Ranil played a game of hide and seek to postpone the election. For that, he used his uncle’s newspapers and the TV, newspapers and website that went behind Rajapaksas and loss their way. After the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission to hold the election until then, he started dancing in the open space.
There is a story that says ‘you must dance outside even if you are wearing a mask’. On that day in Parliament, he came out. He performed the “18 sanniya” dance after removing his mask. He performed a “18 sanniya” dance, and the following day he announced in his uncle’s newspapers that a committee had been formed to reform the U.N.P. This was presented as U.N.P’s winning news by the newspapers, television networks, and websites that fabricated news twenty-four hours a day to delay the elections. The UNP’s proposed constitution change was in the news in order to rebuild the UNP. That indicates that according to Ranil, there won’t be any elections until more people support the U.N.P.
If you want to vote, you should be ready to vote for U.N.P. Or no votes…’
Ranil conveyed this message to the nation through Parliament on that particular day. This tale of Ranil touched people all over the nation. America experienced the same shock. In a statement, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended that Sri Lanka hold local elections. At the embassy gatherings in Colombo, Indian journalists had been heard implying that India had unofficially informed Ranil of this message.
Ranil shows America and India as his biggest strengths. His own media news plant show cased that America’s highest security envoys have come to Sri Lanka to show that America is with Ranil. He also used India’s foreign minister Jeyshankar’s visit to Sri Lanka to show that India is in his pocket. Ranil must have been upset when the American Senate Committee on Foreign Relations issued a tweet saying that Sri Lanka’s local government elections should be held on the scheduled date. But he thought that when the further hearing of the election petition submitted by a colonel to the court postponed up to May, it would be possible to postpone the election by two more years.
After that, the Sri Lankan media said that a new election commission would be appointed and the new election commission would make decisions about the vote. Deshapriya, the ‘waiting-to-be Election Commissioner’, also said that the nominations that have been submitted will be cancelled. He said that the election is now dead. Ranil and Ranil’s media said that the election was delayed. While they were merrymaking, news came from Pakistan. That is, the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to verdict immediately hold two provincial elections, which the government of Pakistan had postponed because it did not have the money to hold elections.
“It occurs in Pakistan, but not in Sri Lanka…”
Our people remembered that song by Gypsies Sunil Perera. Even though the election petition hearing was postponed to May, Sirasa, Siyata and Mawrata media did not give up their fight.
‘ they are crazy…’
Other media outlets and websites that claim to be national in Sri Lanka, aside from Siyata and the mawrata, also laughed that way. In an attempt to disperse the Samagi Jana Balavega and National Jana Balavega parades that had converged on Colombo to protest the postponement of the elections, Ranil’s administration used tear gas. There, a National People’s Power hopeful passed away. It was evident that Sri Lanka was re-entering a dictatorial path. All of those individuals lost in the popular vote, including the president, the defence minister, the finance minister, and the president’s advisors. People were watching their revelry, “No votes, no votes,” in total helplessness.
In 2018, when Maithripala removed the then Prime Minister Ranil and his cabinet and unconstitutionally prorogued the Parliament and made Mahinda the Prime Minister, the court defeated the dictatorial performance of Maithripala.
Today, Ranil, who had requested the court’s assistance in fighting Maitri’s constitutional coup, launched a second election coup. Ranjith Maddumabandara, the general secretary of Samagi Jana Balawega, filed a complaint against the finance minister’s secretary for failing to provide funding for the election, and the court ordered Ranil, the finance minister, and the secretary to immediately release the funding for the election. The court issued a similar historical ruling in 2018, finding Mahinda’s appointment and dissolution of parliament to be unconstitutional, and ordered Ranil, the finance minister, and the secretary to release the funds designated for the vote.
A well-known lawyer said about this court decision that this decision is like asking Ranil to ‘shut up and sit down’. Because that day Ranil told the opposition to shut up and sit down and said that the elections have not been postponed, there is no vote to postpone. The court has said in this decision that there is a vote, that vote has been postponed, and that money should be given to hold that vote immediately. Similarly, Ranil said that the judiciary cannot seek money for votes. The court has ordered that even if the court cannot find money, the court knows how to get the government to find money.
If this court decision is defined correctly, as that lawyer said, Ranil will be told to ‘shut up and sit down Ranil’. People will say the rest on Election Day for sure.
‘Shut up and go home Ranil…’