North turned off by party virus of nationalist politics
No-show at party meetings worries candidates
On Monday, a pocket meeting organised by local sympathisers of the Tamil National Alliance ( TNA) in Meesalai, Chavakachcheri saw fewer than 50 people from nearby villages taking part in the nearly hourlong meeting. Many left even before the event was officially wrapped up.
With just three weeks left for the parliamentary polls on August 5, the election mood in the North is yet to warm up as pocket meetings organised by the different parties saw only sparse gatherings.
The reason, party insiders said, was the coronavirus global pandemic, lack of support by party cadre disenchanted by being ignored once elections are over, and shortage of campaign donations.
Addressing the media on Thursday, Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya also observed that voters in the North and Eastern provinces were less “enthusiastic” about the upcoming poll. He stressed that people should be informed of the importance of the elections that would determine who would represent them in parliament for the next five years.
In the Jaffna electoral district, which includes Kilinochchi district and has a total of 571, 848 voters, there are 33o candidates from 19 political parties and 14 independent groups contesting seven seats. Th e
Northern Province will, significantly, have the longest ballot paper due to the high number of candidates contesting the polls.
The Tami National People’s Front led by Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and the Tamil People’s National Front led by the former chief minister of the Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran, have been critical of the TNA, claiming it was colluding with the previous United National Front government elected to office in 2015.
Annalingam Annarasa, Leader of the Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives in Kayts, is, however, one of the citizens increasingly frustrated with the Tamil nationalistic politics which have dominated the region in recent decades.
Mr. Annarasa said some 20,000 fishing families in the region were completely helpless in the face of failure by parties to provide the community with urgent needs to and to take up their issues publicly, especially over bottom-trawling by Indian fishermen in the northern sea, which threatens their livelihood.
“Currently, major Tamil political parties are divided for petty reasons which would further split the vote. Other national parties are talking about development alone. Once elected, what are they going to do for us? To be honest, people are really fed up with this system,” Mr. Annarasa told The Sunday Times.
He pointed out that it was a People's Liberation Front ( JVP) parliamentarian who had raised the fact that there have been no prosecutions of fishermen arrested for bottom-trawling under the new strict law passed in parliament in 2017. Former TN AM PM. A. Sumanthiran tabled the bill as a private member’s bill.
In the Vanni electoral district which includes the Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Mannar districts, more than 20 parties and independent
groups are contesting six seats with 287, 013 voters in their sights.
During a meeting of candidates held on Monday at the Jaffna District Secretariat under the chairmanship of the District Secretary who also functions as Returning Officer ( RO), various candidates lodged complaints of being under constant surveillance by military personnel and of facing intimidation at pocket meetings in their electorates.
The concerned candidates claimed their vehicles were checked repeatedly for leaflets and propaganda materials at newly- set- up roadblocks. Officials assured them their complaints would be forwarded to the Election Commission.
Shanthi Sriskantharajah, who is contesting in the Vanni electoral district for the TNA, wrote to the Election Commission recently alleging that at least 27 new road checkpoints have been put in place in the Mullaitivu district alone to harass people and candidates when they are travelling around the region for campaigning purposes.
“People prefer to not attend the pocket meetings due to so many checkpoints they have to go through in order to reach the meeting location,” Ms. Sriskantharajah said.
“It has become a difficult task for us to take our message to the people. Organising small pocket meetings consumes a significant amount of our time.” The candidate said only 47 people turned up to one of her pocket meetings this week.
The Head of Department in Media Studies at the University of Ja ff na, Dr. S. Raguram, said the election mood in the region was downbeat compared to other regions in the country due to increasing frustration over nationalistic brand politics, the differing expectations of younger generations and the ongoing threat of coronavirus global pandemic.
“I don’t see a vibrant election rally with the participation of enthusiastic voters even though it is organised as a low-key pocket meeting in a village,” Dr Raguram said, noting that this would reflect voter turnout if many people lose interest in the polls.