Let the people decide
In a vibrant and active Democracy, a free and fair electoral process is one of the hallmarks. In the run up to the Election of the President of Sri Lanka we have seen dramatic turns of events which have hitherto kept the audience, the people of this country, spellbound.
Sajith Premadasa announced his candidature despite opposition from some of his colleagues and also the leader of the party’s good sense has prevailed and the United National Party has lived up to its name and remained United, endorsing him unanimously.
Though it has been denied that there were conditions linked to his selection we saw that five resolutions were passed at the recent party convention, including one that made Ranil Wickremesinghe remain as the leader of the party.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been hounded for the past four years and faced a number of court cases and was named as the candidate of the Podujana Peramuna.
Minister Rajitha Senaratne spilled the beans at an election rally in the south that their lawyers were filing action challenging the citizenship of Gotabaya and lo and behold on the following day this prediction proved to be true and two alleged members of NGOS filed the petition.
Elections can be won in Sri Lanka in two ways. First at the polls where the peoples vote would decide the winner and secondly prior to the polls when the rival candidate is removed from the scene of action in a number of ways
It is most surprising that lawyers who represented the petitioners were not able to interpret the Constitution of 1972 which clearly divides the Government Administrative machinery into three parts, President, Legislature and the Judiciary and categorically stated that the power given by the people at the Presidential election reposes with the President and that he has Executive Powers.
President Rajapaksa therefore had the power to sign the 21 certificates to confer dual citizenship status to persons as the Cabinet was not formed at this stage.
Despite the immense pressure it is admirable that the Appeal Court stood steadfast and announced the correct verdict unanimously that the petition was flawed in law and had to be rejected. Gotabaya enjoyed dual citizenship status for 15 years and the filing of this petition at this stage the court held was not in good faith and can be termed attempted political manipulation by a rival who is most unfortunate.
Do we have adequate security covers for the leading contenders? It is imperative that the Police Department should provide Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sajith Premadasa, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake-a special security cover as they will, at this juncture, be travelling islandwide to attend political rallies.
ANTON ABEYESEKERA,
THIMBIRIGASYAYA