Beware: Deny the right to vote at the government’s own peril
Refusal to hold March elections may drive people to anarchists’ arms
If it is one of the foremost duties of any government in a democracy to hold elections on schedule, then this government has fallen at the first ditch.
If it fails or is reluctant to provide the necessary financial wherewithal to the Election Commission to hold local government elections before the constitutional deadline, it risks being charged with dereliction of duty.
Throughout these last two months, the government’s manner and conduct have left much to be desired. It has fallen far short of the high standards expected of it to uphold and maintain, at a time when elections have been gazetted and public interest in it has spontaneously risen to a fever pitch.
But instead of assisting the polling process, it seeks to slam the brakes. Instead of readily granting the Rs. 10 billion already allocated in December’s budget, it dons the pauper’s loincloth and pleads poverty; but finds no qualm or blush to emerge from the ranks of penury, to celebrate Independence Day with kingly pomp and pageantry.
But what’s the value of freedom in a country where the constitutional right to the franchise can easily be put on hold at the government’s arbitrary will?
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the Government is bent on scuttling plans to hold local government elections on March 9 as gazetted on February 1st. The way it proceeds to do it does not reflect a single ray of redeeming goodness but serves only to cast it in furtive bad light.
The latest, in a series of bids to buckle it, has been a Treasury circular informing all government institutions that the Treasury’s permission must be sought and obtained ‘before entering into commitments, regarding capital expenditure items over Rs.500m’.
Furthermore, in its circular dated February 27, the Treasury warned that if its permission was not obtained, ‘the relevant officers will be personally liable for such expenditure.’
Coincidentally, the same day, the Election Commissioner handed over the ballot printing order to the Government Printer and its web
presses were ready to roll.
This put Government Printer Gangani Liyanage in quandary. The past practice had been to print the ballot papers and then receive reimbursement from Treasury. True, that she had a constitutional duty to assist the Election Commission after elections had been gazetted, but to pursue the past practice without the Treasury’s consent would expose her to a personal liability of over Rs. 500m.
Overawed at this alarming prospect, she, understandably, played safe. Till she sorted matters out with the Treasury, the printing of ballots was stopped. As a result, postal voting, which was scheduled to start on February 22, has been postponed.
On Friday came the killer stab which placed the right of the people to the franchise good as dead. Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena told the Election Commission that the Treasury couldn’t ensure ‘if funds could be provided on a continuous basis for the local government elections.’
What? A hand-to-mouth existence for 42 percent of those below the poverty belt and a hand-to-mouth election for all the rest? What on earth happened to the Rs. 10 billion earmarked for elections in the budget that Parliament approved two months ago? Had it been diverted to meet other questionable expenditures not authorised by Parliament? If so, who touched the election kitty as if it were their own piggy bank to draw from?
The Treasury Secretary cannot use the country’s economic crisis as an excuse. The economic crisis didn’t suddenly land on the nation’s doorstep, but was foreseen much in advance. Giving this lame duck allencompassing excuse is nothing more than a feeble attempt to postpone a politically unfavourable election to the Government. It has become the clichéd cover trotted out to do or not to do, for anything the Government may like to or dislike to do.
For example, to dish out 200 million bucks to celebrate independence, the excuse is tendered that it’s because of the economic crisis that we must show the world we can still celebrate. But to hold elections and show the world the infinitely more impressive depiction that, no matter how down and out we are, we still value the right to the franchise, the excuse is given that it’s because of the economic crisis, we can’t hold elections.
With such a Government, aided and abetted by a slavish, servile, spineless bureaucracy that has become nothing more than a repulsive politicians’ spittoon, what chance is there for the public to expect ethical conduct from those selected to office?
Nor can the Treasury Secretary absolve himself of all responsibility for the Rs 10 billion specifically reserved for election expenses in last December’s budget. Merely saying the coffers are bare to deny the people their right to vote, simply will not suffice. The entire political and public service establishment has been placed on notice that accountability for any acts or omissions done whilst in office will relentlessly shadow them even after they leave office, as a Supreme Court 7 judge-bench made expressly clear in December.
Further, it was reported on Friday night that another Finance Ministry circular has been issued dated February 14, that henceforth all public expenditure on non-essentials must first be approved by the President cum Finance Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Finally, the election buck has stopped at the Presidential table. And it is to be hoped that the lifelong liberal democratic President will consider the holding of the elections in March, before its constitutional deadline expires, as one of paramount importance and ultra-essential to the democratic life of the nation.
He will capture two birds with one stroke of his Mont Blanc pen which he received from well-wishers at his 50-years-at-the-Bar celebrations at Shangri-La last year. One, he will demonstrate to the world, he is a stickler for democratic traditions, a committed believer in the Rule of Law, an ardent upholder of the supremacy of the Constitution.
And two, equally demonstrate to the Lankan people that, despite the heavy crown he wears on his head, despite the painful ordeal of bearing the orphaned Lankan child across the derelict Caucasian bridge to safety, he hasn’t lost sight of his constitutional duty under Article 33(c) ‘to ensure the creation of proper conditions for the conduct of free and fair elections, at the request of the Election Commission’, and that finance will be no object to make this prime requisite of a Democracy available to the people in March: the right to the franchise.
Else, if elections are denied come March, another uprising is on the cards. One that may not be as peaceful as the struggle on Galle Face Green. Nor one that can be easily squashed by a sledgehammer but one violent in nature that can end in bloodshed. The Government should not shove the nation into the waiting arms of the anarchists beating at Democracy’s gates.