Rajapakse brinkmanship

The last few years in Sri Lanka have been marked by numerous elections at various levels – presidential, parliamentary, provincial council and local government. The Mahinda Rajapakse regime won all these elections with landslide victories, and now controls all eight provincial councils, barring the Northern Provincial Council for which elections are yet to be held. Indeed, the regime seemed to have mastered the art of electoral politics, ensuring its legitimacy and overwhelming power at a time when the United National Party (UNP), the main opposition, is in shambles.

It was against this backdrop that the second round of local government elections for 65 seats took place in late July, following on local government elections for 234 local authorities in March. The July elections included 20 positions in the war-affected north. What were essentially elections of no particular consequence on a national scale were turned into a major contest by the Rajapakse government, pitting a vision of economic development versus a political solution including accountability for war-time abuses. Confident of their ability to railroad any election, numerous ministers, President Rajapakse and his close relatives in government all campaigned hard in the north. They liberally distributed hand-outs ranging from sewing machines to water pumps and bicycles to the public, as well as many promises of development projects. The intention was clearly to deflect mounting international pressure by showing that the Tamil community in the north stood with the government.