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January 09, 2015

A New Era Begins for Sri Lanka After President Mahinda Rajapaksa Concedes Defeat

Supporters of Sri Lanka's main opposition presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena burst firecrackers at the end of voting in the presidential election in Colombo. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (8/1/2015)
Supporters of Sri Lanka's main opposition presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena burst firecrackers at the end of voting in the presidential election in Colombo. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (8/1/2015)
On Friday morning, Sri Lankans woke up to news that was unthinkable only a few weeks ago -- President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who took office on 19 November 2005, conceded defeat to 63-year-old former Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, the presidential candidate of the main opposition United National Party.

The day before, Sri Lankan voters had cast their ballot in the 7th presidential election in a closely contested presidential election, with incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa seeking a record third term in office. The election was largely peaceful and turnout was more than 70 per cent in most districts.

Rajapaksa tweeted on 9 January, after it was clear he had lost the vote:
The early results showed that Rajapaksa remained popular among the country's Sinhala Buddhist population, who account for around 70 per cent of the island country's 21 million people. Sirisena was favoured by the ethnic Tamil-dominated former war zone in the north of the country and in Muslim-dominated areas, who went out in large numbers to vote for him.

A screenshot from news portal Adaderana.lk shows the numbers (final results):

Screenshot from Adaderana.lk
Screenshot from Adaderana.lk
Rajapaksa oversaw the end of a bloody civil war in 2009 that had raged for 26 years between government forces and a militant organisation seeking an independent Tamil state. He was reelected in 2010 by a landslide, and afterward successfully amended the constitution to concentrate political power in the presidency and remove term limits on the office. While in power, he has faced accusations of abuse of power, nepotism and human rights violations committed during the final stages of the civil war.

Blogger Indrajit Samarajiva, often a critic of the Rajapaksa government, paid tribute to his legacy:
Mahinda Rajapaksa has shown me things I never thought possible. He ended a war that I thought would never end. He rebuilt Colombo and showed us physical development I never dreamed of. For all of his faults, he has won me over as a citizen. I think he has been a good President, in my opinion Sri Lanka’s best, especially because he is the first President to lose an election and gracefully leave.

I have always been reluctant to call Mahinda a dictator because I never thought he was. As much as he messed with Parliament, with the Judiciary, he was always close with the people and he rose and fell by the vote. He was elected to power, he marshalled popular support to win the war and, in the end, he was brave enough to face election for a third time. Most importantly, and something we’ve never seen from an incumbent, he was brave enough to gracefully lose.

He has truly been a great leader and, though I voted for his opponent, I think he deserves something Sri Lanka hasn’t really afforded its leaders. A comfortable, honored and secure position as the respected and beloved ex-President of Sri Lanka.
Some commenters disagreed with Samarajiva's view on Rajapaksa time as president, such as Reshan Auston:
While we carry the respect for Mahinda for winning the war, I have no respect for him for looting the country. As a leader he failed the country. He had all the opportunity to be the Nelson Mandela of Sri Lanka but instead he decided to be Sadam Hussain. He looted the country with his brothers while his sons enjoyed the life using poor tax payers money. We couldn’t get our day to day activities done at government offices without political influences. Is this the leader we care about?

As a president he failed after finishing the war. I don’t harbour any remorse for his loss. He deserved what he got. I don’t wanna shed crocodile tear.
Sri Lankan polling officers carrie ballot boxes into a counting center after close of polling for the presidential election in Colombo. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (8/1/2015)
Sri Lankan polling officers carry ballot boxes into a counting center after the close of polling for the presidential election in Colombo. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (8/1/2015)
Dilrukshi Handunnetti wrote on citizen journalism website Groundviews on why Sri Lankans sought a change:
It is not as if Maithripala Sirisena, a simple villager who has risen within the SLFP ranks to reach top positions, holds the island enthralled. Instead, what he represents in terms of ideas and promises, matter to a large majority of the people who have silently observed an elected president turn increasingly authoritarian and triumphalist. [..]

There may be others who feel that while road and rail connectivity was being achieved, the incumbency has severed connectivity among the island’s communities that lived in harmony for decades, causing serious divisions on ethno-religious lines.

It is that negative difference that has fuelled an electorate’s call for a political change, perhaps at great risk, still with the hope that a new administration may have the political maturity to tolerate dissent and celebrate a plural Sri Lankan identity.
The social media scene was full of buzz:
Sri Lanka's free and fair elections were congratulated by many:
And here is what Sri Lankans are hoping for the future:
The post was also published in Global Voices Online.

January 08, 2015

Your Guide to Sri Lanka's 2015 Presidential Election

Sri Lankan election commission workers carry ballot boxes while escorted by police on the eve of presidential elections in Colombo. Image by Chamila KarunaRathne. Copyright Demotix (7/1/2015)
Sri Lankan election commission workers carry ballot boxes while escorted by police on the eve of presidential elections in Colombo. Image by Chamila KarunaRathne. Copyright Demotix (7/1/2015)
Sri Lankans are going to the polls on Thursday, January 8, in one of the most closely contested, significant presidential elections in the nation's history.

Every six years, Sri Lanka elects a new president and legislature. The parliament has 225 members, elected to six-year terms. It is a multi-party system, dominated by two political groups. There are 15 million eligible voters in Sri Lanka and over 12,000 polling stations have been set for elections. Voter turnout in the previous election was around 75 percent.

In the 2010 presidential election, Mahinda Rajapaksa of United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won with 58 percent of the vote. Shortly after being elected, Rajapaksa successfully amended the constitution to concentrate political power in the presidency, and remove term limits on the office. This time, Rajapaksa has preponed the elections, holding them two years ahead of schedule. Rajapaksa, the region's longest-serving leader, will try for a third term, amidst criticisms that he abuses his authority and seeks a dynasty.
The actors

Rajapaksa has the backing of a number of small constituent parties of the UPFA, including the Ceylon Workers' Congress, and Communist Party. He has the support of the Buddhist extremist group Bodu Bala Sena. Rajapaksa's platform, titled "Mahinda's Vision—The World Winning Path", pledges to introduce an entirely new constitution within a year.

Supporters of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa cheer during an election campaign rally in Palmadulla, Sri Lanka. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (3/1/2015)
Supporters of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa cheer during an election campaign rally in Palmadulla, Sri Lanka. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (3/1/2015)
Rajapakse has actively campaigned alongside celebrities like sporting Bollywood megastar Salman Khan, creating no small amount of buzz. Touring the former war zone in the country's North, Khan urged minority Tamils to back Rajapakse in the election, calling him the "known devil".

Rajapakse's chief opponent and former health minister, Maithripala Sirisena, is a surprise pick by the United National Party, the main opposition party, which is backed by twelve smaller parties. The remaining seventeen candidates are independents or belong to minor political parties.  UNP only revealed Sirisena's nomination on November 21, 2014, after the election was announced.

Sirisena released his platform, titled "A Compassionate Maithri Governance—A Stable Country", which pledged to abolish the country's presidential government within 100 days of being elected. Under a new parliamentary system, Sirisena says he would appoint UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe as prime minister.
Sirisena has launched a campaign attacking Rajapaksa where he is weakest: the President's apparent nepotism. During Rajapaksa's presidency, his three brothers and his son have all risen to positions of considerable influence in the national government.

Maithripala Sirisena, it's worth noting, took a great risk when he left the Rajapaksa Administratiojn. Indeed, the Asian Human Rights Commission recently expressed concern about his personal safety, noting that he's suffered several attempted attacks over the past several days.

Sri Lanka's main opposition presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena reads a newspaper during a campaign rally for the upcoming presidential elections in Colombo. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (31/12/2014)
Sri Lanka's main opposition presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena reads a newspaper during a campaign rally for the upcoming presidential elections in Colombo. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (31/12/2014)
Use of social media

#IVotedSL is a trilingual campaign launched by Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) to encourage citizens to exercise their voting rights.

Image courtesy CMEV. Copyright Free.
Image courtesy CMEV. Copyright Free.
The campaign calls on voters to take a public pledge that they will exercise their right to vote on January 8th. An individual can signify this pledge by changing their profile/account picture and cover/banner page on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any other social media platform. On election day those who take the pledge can share through social media a picture of the fifth digit (little finger) of their left hand which is marked with indelible ink using the hashtag #IVotedSL.
President Rajapaksa's quite active Twitter account has 92,600 followers. According to an analysis by Groundviews, however, large numbers of these subscribers and admirers might be less than organic.

According to blogger Indi Samarajiwa:
The dominant hashtag for this election is, by far, #PresPollSL (best source for news, in my opinion). CMEV recommends #IVotedSL for voting related stuff.
Samarajiwa also analyses the Facebook engagement of both the campaigns. He concludes that Sirisena's readers seem to engage far more with the campaign's content, despite the fact that Rajapakse has almost twice as many followers.
Irregularities and violence

Supporters of Sri Lanka's ruling party have faced accusations of violating election laws during campaign. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) identifies an "unparalleled misuse [by the ruling party] of state resources and media". According to Human Rights Watch, local monitoring groups have reported numerous acts of election-related violence and intimidation during the month-long campaign.
Resources
According to the latest opinion survey by the Centre of Policy Analysis (CPA), 86.9 percent of Sri Lankans think their vote can make a difference in the outcome of the presidential election. Let's hope everyone can exercise their voting rights peacefully!

The post was also published in Global Voices Online.