‘Which election comes first?’
That is the main topic of political gossip in Colombo these days.
‘There will be no early election called …’
This is a story told by a legal expert.
‘Why do you say that?’ asked a journalist.
The legal expert continues, ‘The government has assured the Supreme Court that it does not have money to hold elections.
‘So…?’ asks the journalist.
‘If an emergency election is called because there is no money to hold a small vote, it is misleading the Supreme Court… ‘Said the jurist.
What he said is true. The case that there is no money to hold local government elections is still being heard in the court. In that case, there is a legal obstacle for the government to call new elections. The only solution is to shut up about the lack of money for local government elections and allow the Election Commissioner to call the next presidential election. Then the government will be able to say that there is no money for the local government election and that it can find money for the presidential election which will be held according to the constitution.
‘Does that mean there will be no election until there is a presidential election…?’
The election that can be called early is the general election. The president can dissolve the parliament at any time. Ranil has no power to go for an emergency presidential election. Laws should be passed for that. Since the day Ranil became the president, the media who have been loyal to Ranil said that they are going to hold an emergency presidential election this September.
‘Sudden presidential election…’
This is the news that the media planted in those days. But now there is no talk about it. At that time, it was said that the best thing for Ranil was a snap presidential election. Those who write political analysis to build Ranil’s image, wrote that a snap presidential election is best for Ranil. Now it is said that the general election is the best for Ranil. Now, if they themselves lose the majority in the general election, Ranil will appoint any prime minister he wants and analyse how to form the government.
There have been two occasions when the President of Sri Lanka was in one party and another party won the general election. The first was the 1994 general election. President was U, N. P’s Wijetunga. Chandrika’s Podu peramuna won 105 seats. There was nothing Wijetunga could do. He made Chandrika the Prime Minister and went home.
Next was the 2001 general election. Ranil’s UNP won the general election. Chandrika made Ranil Prime Minister and gave all the ministries.
The clear difference between 1994 and 2001 was that in 1994 Wijetunga’s term as president was to end in two or three months. 2001 Chandrika still had 4 years left. Today Ranil is where Wijetunga was in 1994. Ranil doesn’t even have the parliamentary mandate that Wijetunga had. Ranil will have no choice but to go home the very next day if Samagi Jana Balavegaya or JVP wins the general election. If Ranil stays, the second struggle will start when the results of the general elections released. The reason is that Ranil became the president with the votes of the Rajapaksa family and Pohottuwa councillors who were the enemy of the struggle.
As soon as Ranil became president, he suppressed the struggle and protected them. Because of this, the struggle is not over. The iron shoe suppresses the struggle. Crushing this shoe with hammers, people return to the Galle Face when the election results come. The government was afraid to hold the local government election because people were likely to come to the Galle Face last year when the results came out.
If Wijetunga, who elected to parliament from Kandy polling highest number of votes while leading the UNP as Prime Minister under Premadasa, was afraid of Chandrika who won 105 seats, then it is impossible to imagine that Ranil, who does not even have a parliamentary mandate, will be able to hold an emergency general election and not give the prime minister ship to the party that wins the majority of seats. Ranil knows this. The only option he has is to allow the Election Commission to call a presidential election and remain in the presidency until the last day.
After losing the 2001 general election, Chandrika still had 4 years left, but she was afraid of the U.N.P. mandate. At that time, Ranil was able to remove her through a people’s struggle. But it was missed because he did not believe in deal politics but struggle politics.
Ranil is serving as President on top of a people volcano. He occupies that summit. It is impossible to say when this volcano will erupt. He knows that the time of the explosion is the time of calling a vote.
Mrs. Bandaranaike was embarrassed by not giving the office of prime minister to the opposition which won more seats than the government in power in the history of Sri Lanka’s general elections. In the 1965 general election, opposition leader Dudley’s U.N.P. won 66 seats. In the elections, the Sri Lankan Freedom party Alliance won 41 seats. Dudley’s UNP failed to form a government with a majority of seats. Because of this, she did not resign from the post of Prime Minister. The UNP brought the masses to the streets. The frightened lady left.
If an emergency general election is held, it will be held after March next year. When the general election is held, the results are announced and a new government is appointed, Ranil will have three or four months. A president for three or four months is a president who is packing to go home. It takes three months to quit a job. That means those three months considered as time to leave the presidency and make up your mind to go home. If the Prime Minister who is elected by vote says that he is the president from the majority of parliamentarians, there is no answer to say that to a president who is president from the majority of parliamentarians.
Ranil is playing all the games he knows to keep the parliamentary majority, knowing that if the majority goes, the presidency will go too. Ranil can only approach the new prime minister, who comes with a new majority with a new mandate from the people, and ask him to let him stay for two or three months until the end of his term of office.