March 05, 2010

Inner Significance of 2010 Presidential Election - Sri Lanka

Siritunga Jaysuriya
General Secretary
United Socialist Party (USP)

Within Sri Lanka a mass mood is forming of non-confidence in the results of the January, 2010 presidential election.  This is similar to the June, 2009 Iran presidential election fraud galvanizing millions of people there to take to the streets in protest.    Though we cannot yet say how closely the Sri Lankan election violations resembled the wholesale electoral fraud perpetrated upon the Iranian people, it is absolutely clear that the political environments within which these two presidential elections were held is extremely similar.

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March 05, 2010

USP Contests for Nine Districts in the General Election

By LankaSocialist Correspondent

Sarath Fonseka abducted

Fight to stop dictatorship cannot be postponed

Siritunga Jayasuriya (USP) in Colombo and Elizabeth Clarke, CWI in London

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February 14, 2010

Click to Read More

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Violent election campaign puts Rajapakse back in power

Grim period ahead for workers and poor

Feb 01, 2010

Rajapakse (poster) returns to power after violent campaign

With the main opposition candidate in yesterday’s presidential election, Sarath Fonseka, under ‘hotel arrest’, surrounded by hundreds of state forces, Mahinda Rajapakse made an unusually low-key acceptance speech to mark his ‘victory’. It had been gained through flagrant breeches of the law. His election opponent now fears for his life and the working class and poor can expect nothing from a continuation of the Rajapakse dictatorship.

This election was the first time since the end of the three-decade-long civil war that anyone could cast a vote for or against the president. His army had butchered tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in the course of last year. Fonseka was the commander at the head of that army.

The ex- right hand man of Rajapakse presented himself in the elections as a champion of democracy who promised the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka a better deal. He got the support of the majority of Tamil MPs, who believed he had a chance of beating Rajapakse and carrying out ‘regime change’. But for Sri Lanka’s voters they represented as much choice as ‘between an axe and a machete’, as recent material on this web-site has explained.

United Socialist Party takes on the mass murderers

Maintaining its principled stand on the need for Sinhala and Tamil workers’ unity and the right of the oppressed Tamil minority to self-determination, the United Socialist Party managed to get its message across to thousands of people. There was some coverage in the media, but, with no rich patrons and tiny resources compared with the two ‘big guns’, it was unable to overcome the lies, distortions, misinformation and confusion that plagued this macabre election.

As expected, in the predominantly Tamil North and East, Fonseka received far more votes than Rajapakse. In the war-devastated Jaffna and Vanni districts, in spite of massive intimidation and election violence, including bomb attacks in Jaffna on election-day morning itself, the ex-Commander got more than twice as many votes as the president - 167,630 against 66,052. In the Eastern Province, he got 386,823 compared with 272,327.

In the predominantly Sinhala South, Rajapakse received a majority in each province, undoubtedly assisted by the massive infringements acknowledged by an Election Commissioner unable to cope with the volume of complaints. (The Commissioner let it be known in advance the he would step down from the job as soon as the election result was announced!)

At one point in the election, when government vehicles and personnel were being used openly to assist the president’s campaign, and when posters and cut-out figures of Rajapakse reached the totally illegal proportions of 8 metres high, Siritunga Jayasuriya suggested that, if the police could not deal with the infringement, the people should be encouraged to take things into their own hands and pull down the offending constructions!

Wrong policies

In the last presidential election, in 2005, Tamils were mistakenly ‘advised’ by the TNA, to boycott the vote. This was in line with the position of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, still at war with the Sri Lankan state at the time. This led to Rajapakse being elected almost entirely by Sinhala votes.

This time, too, the Tamil politicians made a fatal mistake. They could have recommended support for a candidate whose party - the United Socialist Party - had consistently defended the rights of the Tamil-speaking people throughout the war period, defending, in courageous campaigns, their right to self-determination and calling for united, working class action to defeat all chauvinists, war-mongers and representatives of the ruling capitalist class.

The TNA MPs are rooted in the existing class (and caste) society, promoting the illusion that the national aspirations of the oppressed Tamil people could be achieved without overthrowing existing class relations. A new Singapore in the Tamil homeland is the dream they have constantly promoted.

It is clear from the turn-out of Tamil voters in the North - as low as 25% in Jaffna - that many were not enthusiastic about voting for either of their oppressors. Very few Internally Displaced Persons, or the tens of thousands still in the detention camps, were registered to vote let alone able or willing to do so.

It is also clear that, even if there had been a ‘fair fight’ and Fonseka had won this election, not one element of real self-rule would have been granted the Tamil people. As Chris Patten, co-chairman of the ‘International Crisis Group’ warned before the election, "Tamil humiliation and frustration could well lead to militancy again."

Struggle for democracy and socialism must go on

The USP campaigned valiantly the length and breadth of the country, leafleting, postering and holding meetings. Its vote was severely affected by the misguided anti-Rajapakse vote of workers and poor people – Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. Nevertheless, the more than 8,000 people across the country who voted for the USP were undoubtedly very conscious of the need for a bold socialist alternative. The USP, in this extraordinary election, recorded a higher vote than any other ‘left’ candidate and will face the huge struggles of the future with the same courage and determination they have shown in the recent, very ugly period.

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Siritunga casts vote early in the day

January 26, 2010
By USP 2010 Presidential election campaign team

As passers-by and fellow voters of the constituency greeted the Thimbrigasyaya (a locality in the centre of Colombo) born candidate in the Presidential elections 2010. Siritunga Jayasuriya was one of those early voters who cast their vote. He was greeted by the waiting press by constantly clicking him and vying for a close-up shot of the fighting socialist candidate.

It is clear from the expectant faces that people are yearning for a change, but what kind of a change is the billion rupee question today! Mahinda's regime has seen to it that no opposition candidate including the main capitalist opposition candidate Sarat Fonseka once a henchman of Mahinda has any chance. The slavish press has deliberately forgotten the other fighting alternative to the two capitalist and communalist candidates.

It is more than likely that this election will be the most violent and undemocratic one, already indications are there that mass scale rigging will take place especially in the north of Sri Lanka, where more than 350,000 voters are "missing" (either dead or fled) and only 232,000 thousand voters have received the voter identification slips out of 700,000 registered voters. The remaining voter ID slips are for taking for the well oiled corrupt regime with the help of the army in the war-torn area of Jaffna and elsewhere. USP candidate Siritunga through a press release and SMS text campaign has warned the voters of what can happen on the Election Day.

There are more than mere indications that  Mahinda's clique is preparing to shift the goal posts in the event, that the opposition gets the upper hand, one can see the desperate faces in the ruling UPFA camp, the voices in the TV have become shriller and the body language of Mahinda and his sycophants is becoming more and more desperate. The rumor mill is working overtime spreading the news of all sorts of possibilities. But it is more than certain that MR and his coterie are preparing for a daring adventure in the event of a defeat, the smell of an army led coup is very much evident, the state controlled electronic media has been taken over by the army (the regular staff have been asked to go on forced leave), the Airport is further encircled by the forces, the army check points have increased, the government has declared holiday for the rest of the week from tomorrow (from the 27th  to 30th). Opposition supporters are being questioned, a leading supporter of the opposition Tiran Ales a top businessman had to face a bomb attack on his residence.

As reported earlier this election has been very hectic for the USP, it has pulled off a very difficult task of contesting in the most difficult circumstances against all odds. Pitched against powerful capitalist candidates, a rogue Tamil candidate and the opportunistic "left", the task of the USP and Siritunga were more than difficult, it was an impossible task. What ever may be the results and the number of votes that USP will fetch, it has been a marvelous campaign where ordinary working class people, through out the Island recognized USP's Siritunga as the fighting socialist candidate who has stood by his socialist principles. The challenge for the United Socialist Party in the coming future is to build that recognition into actual support and pave way for those people who appreciate to Join the socialist fight and join USP.

We thank all those who stood by the USP in the hour of its need and supported us with material and physical help, we have advanced our ideas further in these elections, as the parliamentary plain is always a platform for socialists and Marxists to explain the ideas and bring the struggling masses nearer to the ideas of Socialism. We ultimately win when the working masses are emancipated from war ridden capitalism and landlordism.