For a Free and Fair Election in the Batticaloa District

February 19th, 2008

An Appeal by Civil Society Organisations and Concerned Citizens

We have come together as a group of concerned civil society organisations and citizens to express our firm solidarity with the people of the East in the immense challenge they face in the local government election to be held on March 10th 2008.

We consider the election an important milestone in the road map to peace democracy and the economic recovery of North and the East of the country. The election provides the political space and opportunity to enable the people to begin participating democratically in the peace process and protecting their human security. We urge the government, the political parties and the voting population to join in a concerted effort to make the election a successful and fully democratic election.

The conditions are propitious for such an effort. This election is being held in one District covering a voting population of only about 275,000 voters and 285 polling stations. This small size of the election enables the Government Authorities, the Police, the Election Commissioner and election monitoring organisations and political parties to concentrate their resources and efforts to ensure a free and fair election including the campaign and the voting.

We appeal to His Excellency the President to give the necessary directions to ensure a free and fair election as has been done in the past. The election would be watched and assessed by all Sri Lankans and the international community as evidence of the good faith of the Government and its intentions to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. It is a first stage in the democratic process and provincial elections recommended by the APRC. The Government, therefore, needs to make a credible demonstration of its capacity to control the forces of violence and dispel the fears that people have regarding the possible use of arms by some of the contesting parties and their suspicions of government’s complicity in such possible action.

The monitoring organisations which have been given the authority to station monitors in polling stations should mobilise the support of public spirited citizens from other parts of the country to conduct an intensive monitoring exercise. The civil society organisations should also invoke the authority of the Supreme Court as was done in the past to put in place the procedures and safeguards that protect the rights of candidates and voters and creates all the conditions essential for a fair and free election particularly in regard to the use of arms by contesting parties.

All political parties must approach the election as a test of Sri Lanka’s capacity as a society pledged to democratic rights and freedoms for all people and must effectively enforce the internal disciplines that will prevent violence . There are two examples of past efforts that should inspire us - the effort that was made by the people to protect their democratic rights in 1987-1989 in the midst of terror and violence and the manner in which the political parties were able to conduct a local government elections in the North in 1997 relatively free of violence.

We urge civil society to be specially active in Batticaloa during the period leading up to the elections. They should organise visits by teams of religious leaders and eminent persons who would be able to spread the message of peace and non-violence and instil the courage into the voters to affirm their democratic rights and their rejection of violence. The elections in the North in 1997 showed in no uncertain terms the strong disapproval with which voters viewed the armed groups who sought election - a lesson which the both the voters in the Batticaloa District and the parties contesting the forthcoming election need to take to heart and act accordingly.

We also appeal to the international community to give special attention to the Batticaloa Election. Although it is a local government which will not normally call for international monitors it is an election which is a crucial test of the country’s capacity to restore peace and democracy. It would therefore merit a small team of international monitors who could have a very positive impact in restraining violence and creating the environment for a free and fair election.

The government and political parties should prepare and announce a set of measures that they would be ready to take both for dealing with post election problems and conditions as well as to maximise the opportunities for participatory democracy at the local level. The Batticaloa election gives the government and parties the unique opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to devolution at the local government level and the principle of subsidiarity. Some of the initiatives taken in other parts of the country to strengthen local government such as the Citizen Charter initiative could be immediately extended to the Batticaloa District and the pledges made in the National Policy on Local Government fulfilled

Entry Filed under: Federalidea