Another unprecedented victory

As expected the UPFA juggernaut rolled over the plains of Uva notching up a mind boggling landslide sweeping everything before it. It is doubtful whether anywhere in the democratic world majorities recorded at elections were of the scale witnessed in recent elections held in Sri Lanka. Certainly never before in post Independent Sri Lanka has such enormous majorities recorded by a single political party in an election.

The UPFA also bagged the vital Jaffna Municipal Council and made a good showing in Vavuniya coming almost on par with the eventual winner. The UNP was routed both in Jaffna and Vavuniya. It received only 83 votes in Jaffna ending at the bottom of the pile.

Significantly the Uva Provincial elections was the first major poll held following the liberation of the country from three decades of terrorism. It is no doubt a ringing endorsement of President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his heroic role of ridding the nation of the scourge that was pushing back the country’s progress and above all saving the nation from dismemberment.

Without doubt it is the President who carried the day for the Government candidates since the people at large are now increasingly beginning to look at things from a national perspective. The Provincial poll was only a vehicle whereby they could reiterate their confidence in the President. All previous Provincial elections bore this hallmark. Future polls too would be no different. The final Provincial poll in the South will only complete the carnage further debilitating an already moribund Opposition.

The implications for the main opposition UNP is ominous.

It was the contention that when the Western Provincial election was held that the military victories would not have an impact on the urban voter who is of a different mind set politically. But the Province returned the Government with over a 70 percent vote. Now the Opposition has been dealt an even more telling body blow losing it’s Badulla pocket borough by almost the same margin.

The UPFA won Moneragala with 82 percent of the vote. The avalanche could only continue burying the grand old party. It is unthinkable that the UNP would be able to reverse the trend in the foreseeable future with the electorate firmly behind the President for ending the war and ushering in a new independence to the nation. Like the President recently stated today all political lines have got blurred with the people gravitating towards a single ideology.

If the voters endorsed the committed stand of the President against terrorism by giving the Government thumping majorities at earlier elections they would only be doubly keen to maintain the status quo now that the cancer has been excised. The runaway victories shows that the people as a whole have rallied behind the Government to consolidate its military victories by opening up a fresh path for peace and economic development.

In short what was witnessed on Saturday was a spontaneous response by the people of Uva to follow in the pattern of other provinces that went to the poll. It was a collective chorus of the people applauding the victory of the Armed Forces and the Commander-in-Chief who provided the political muscle to attain the final goal. Saying that we hasten to add the Provincial Council system has so far failed to deliver the goods to the people.

Far from serving the people it has now become a self serving avenue for second tier politicians using it as a springboard to enter national politics.

As a result very little is done at ground level defeating the whole concept of devolution. The neglect is apparent all round from the failure to tackle the Dengue epidemic to the recent fiasco in the question papers.

The Provincial Councils have today become a liability other than serving as a means to test the popularity of the ruling party. Hence a major shake up in called for. The time has come to take a closer look at the functioning of these institutions and remedial action taken to make them really people-oriented entities.

It is hoped that the rulers of the newly elected Uva Provincial Council would take cognisance of this and do their utmost for the welfare of the people of this most backward province who gave them big bonanza on behalf of the President.