Campaign Corruption To The Core
The entire bridge to Kalutara is full of this stuff
There’s a lot wrong about this election. For one, all the eyeball-offending hoardings and posters are up despite the Elections Commissioner ordering them down. For two, that one man is actually supposed to be a five member commission (by the Constitution). The law is somewhat random and broken because it’s broken from the start.
A row of public (SLTB) buses I saw on the coast, used for Mahinda’s campaign
Without an independent and reliable Elections Commission there will be abuse. It’s like a game with no referee. Hence you get stuff like
- Facilities at Temple Trees, the official residence of the President, are used to entertain people from various sectors for political purposes. At these events, most of the participants were transported to the venue at State expense and were provided with food and in some instances, even with liquor…
- These gatherings are a violation of the essence of the public notice issued by the Election Commissioner on 08.12.2009 preventing the use of public property for the purpose of promoting a candidate during the election.
- A property belonging to the Ports Authority situated at 56/1 Mc-Callum Road, Colombo 10 is being used to print propaganda material in favor of the President. The said posters are seen in Colombo city and other parts of the country.
- Nine lorries bearing the numbers WP-LG 4738, WP-LG 4740, WP-LG 4741, WP-LG 4742, WP-LG 4744, WP-LG 4745, WP-LG 4546, WP-LG 4547, WP-LG 4749 of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (purchased in 2009) are being released for election work of the UPFA in the Southern Province.
- The meeting of the UPFA on 27-12-2009, at Minuwangoda (Japalawatta) – Around 26 CTB busses were used to transport crowds free of charge from Nittambuwa, Attanagalla, Mattakuuliya, Udahamulla, Angoda, Wattegama and Teldeniya.
- Chairman of Airport and Aviation Service Ltd. had verbally ordered middle and minor grade
- employees of the Airport to go on duty leave to Colombo on 23-12-2009 to participate in a protest rally against a statement made by the common candidate of the opposition
- Some of the key officials of few public media institutions are concurrently holding political party positions of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the leading constituent party of the UPFA
One of these hoardings is for a political party, the other for a public-owned airline. They look the same
Among other things. All of this stuff is from a cursory reading of Transparency International’s Protection Of Public Resources Report. This also documents numerous hoardings displayed by government organizations for one candidate, and orders from the police ordering officers to disobey the Elections Commissioner and keep hoardings up.
- Hoarding displayed at Nugegoda sponsored by the State Trading Corporation
- Hoarding displayed in town hall sponsored by the Presidential Secretariat
- Hoarding displayed in Thimbirigasyaya sponsored by Presidential Operational Office
- Hoarding displayed in Matara sponsored by Sothern Development Authority
- Hoarding displayed in Matara sponsored by Ruhunu Radio
Then there is airtime worth Rs 84 million being bought by Namal and Yoshitha Rajapakse through Tharunyata Hetak, which has gotten large contributions from the Bank Of Ceylon and National Lotteries Board (both controlled by the President). This itself is largely symptomatic of the lack of transparency and laws governing disclosure of funding sources, even if the laws were followed.
All of this points to a deep rot within the system which I think that both candidates should pledge to fix. The Constitution seems like an abstraction, until you see the nasty wrongness that progresses when we ignore it. Taking the hoardings down is one thing, but at some point we have to implement the 17th amendment and set a real Elections Commission up.
Despite corruption will Sri Lanka move ahead?
Sri Lanka shining now
The state of our country is reflected in the fact that the 13th and 17th amendments have become election promises rather than items which are of utmost importance to the country!
[...] an independent and reliable Elections Commission there will be abuse,” comments Indi.ca while discussing the corruption in campaign of the upcoming presidential elections in Sri [...]
Third times the charm? I’ve been trying to post this comment but it just refuses to go through…
“These gatherings are a violation of the essence of the public notice issued by the Election Commissioner on 08.12.2009 preventing the use of public property for the purpose of promoting a candidate during the election.”
Actually… these gatherings are a serious violation of the Presidential Elections Act (No. 15 of 1981). Section 77 of the Act defines the offence as:
Treating
77. Every person who, corruptly, by himself or by any other person, either before, during or after an election, directly or indirectly gives or provides or causes to be given or provided, or is accessory to the giving or providing, or pays or engages to pay wholly or in part the expense of giving or providing any meat, drink, refreshment or provision or any money or ticket or other means or device to enable the procuring of any meat, drink, refreshment, or provision, to or for any person for the purpose of corruptly influencing that person or any other person to give or refrain from giving his vote at such election or on account of any such person or any other person having voted or refrained from voting or being about to vote or refrain from voting at such election, and every elector who corruptly accepts or takes any such meat, drink, or refreshment or provision or any such money or ticket or who adopts such other means or device to enable the procuring of such meat, drink, refreshment, or provision shall be guilty of the offence of treating.
Section 80(1)(b) goes on to specify that “every person who… commits the offence of treating, undue influence or bribery… shall be guilty of a corrupt practice…
Which leads to the clincher in section 80(2):
(2) Every person who is convicted of a corrupt practice shall, by conviction, become incapable for a period of seven years from the date of his conviction of being registered as an elector or of voting at an election under this Act or of being elected to the office of President.
Makes you wonder if anyone in the Government or Opposition bothers to read the applicable laws and why do we even have election laws to begin with…
[...] time, because it’s ‘our culture’. Even if this directly violates the Presidential Elections Act. And hence people aren’t that incensed by it. It’s hard to be when the Elections [...]
HOLY CRAP… check out how India is bagged and Sri Lanka is praised in this video on stock market opportunities:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0c6_JjnB9A
Bit harsh on India don’t you think? But WOOT for Sri Lanka :)
Hope the bull run continues with Sri Lanka’s stocks!
Perhaps we should start asking questions about the big picture…
Do we need a Referendum For A New Democracy?
Are you concerned about the future of democracy? Do you feel democracy is under attack by extreme greed in countries around the world? Are you sick and tired of: living in fear, corporate greed, growing police state, government for the rich, working more but having less?
Can we use both elections and random selection (in the way we select government officials) to rid democracy of undue influence by extreme wealth and wealth-dominated mass media campaigns?
The world’s first democracy (Athenian democracy, 600 B.C.) used both elections and random selection. Even Aristotle (the co-founder of Western thought) promoted the use random selection as the best way to protect democracy. The idea of randomly selecting (after screening) juries remains from Athenian democracy, but not randomly selecting (after screening) government officials. Why is it used only for individual justice and not also for social justice? Who wins from that? …the extremely wealthy?
What is the best way to combine elections and random selection to protect democracy in today’s world? Can we use elections as the way to screen candidates, and random selection as the way to do the final selection? Who wins from that? …the people?