President Chandrika Kumaratunge used Emergency powers to suspend elections for the five Provincial Councils - Central, North-Central, Sabragamuwa, Uva and Western - scheduled for 28 August last year. The Sri Lankan Free Media Movement’s Waruna Karunatilleke and Sunanda Deshapriya challenged the decision before the Supreme Court.
The Court said that the suspension of elections was arbitrary and unreasonable. Rights of speech and expression were violated and the Elections Commissioner, who has independent status under the Sri Lankan constitution, made no effort to ascertain the legal position or challenge the President’s decision.
The constitutional provision that there shall be no legal proceedings against the President for acts or omissions during office will not transform an unlawful act into a lawful one. The presidential immunity from legal action does not exclude judicial review of the lawfulness or propriety of an act or omission, the Court explained.
The Supreme Court declared that the Elections Commissioner also breached the constitutional provision which guaranteed equality before the law in that he treated voters in the five provinces less favourably than those in the North-Western Province where elections were held on 25 January.
Favourites they may be, but the people of North-Western Province faced mob rule in the run-up to and during elections. The North-Western Provincial election was a litmus test before other provincial polls later this year and the presidential and parliamentary elections in the year 2000. Victory at any cost was essential for both the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP). The turn-out in the province comprising Kurunegala and Puttalam districts with 1.3 million voters, was 76%. The PA won 30 seats in the 52-member council, gaining 57% of the votes. The UNP took 19 seats with 37%. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) says that the ‘scale and magnitude of the violence is unprecedented for an election of its kind’.
In the run-up to the election, thugs sponsored by both major parties roamed the districts carrying guns, assaulting and shooting opponents. According to election monitoring agencies, the Movement for Free and Fair Elections (MFFE) and People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), over 700 complaints were made to the police, including 310 against the PA and 160 against the UNP. Two people, including a UNP candidate, were killed and there were 25 attempted murders and shooting. Eight cases of arson, 89 threats and 66 assaults were also recorded.
On election day, armed thugs stormed polling stations, intimidating police officers. Vote rigging and impersonation were widespread. Many voters found that their votes had already been cast. In some areas, election monitors were threatened or assaulted. The CMEV says that senior PA members, including Trade minister Kingsley Wickremaratne and Lands minister DM Jayaratne, abetted election violations. The government-controlled newspaper Daily News says that two cabinet ministers plan to sue the election monitors for criminal defamation. Former military officers accused of human rights violations were involved in election campaigning for the UNP.
Extreme violence at elections in a country described as ‘a longstanding democratic republic’ has upset Western nations. The US embassy in Colombo expressed concern and called for measures to ensure public confidence in the electoral process. According to press reports, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry sent a note to all foreign missions warning that public statements on the elections broke established diplomatic norms and would be considered as interference in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.
PAFFREL and MFFE declared the election as flawed. An application has been made to the Supreme Court to invalidate the election. Media minister Mangala Samaraweera says that violence is not institutionalised like during the previous regime and has rejected reports of vote rigging.
The President and the government have come under severe criticism. Colombo journal Pravada says that President Chandrika’s ‘cavalier attitude to election violence and her excessively partisan approach to the practices of electoral competition’ during elections is a demonstration of the serious crisis of political leadership in Sri Lanka today. The President has applied the Sri Lankan panacea - the appointment of a commission to investigate the election violence.
In a hard-hitting statement, Catholic Bishop Marcus Fernando called for fresh elections and stressed the importance of ending the war in the north-east. The Bishop said: "As long as the war lasts - with its rhetoric and political jostling, its deserters and firearms, its new bulletins and killings - we cannot think of overcoming this culture of violence. Thus ending the war is another imperative".