January 26, 2010

Siritunga casts vote early in the day

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.