Inpam m said,

August 11, 2009 @ 1:07 am

Whatever it is the election in Jaffna is hundred percent free and fair.The truth is TNA lost and EPDP won the election.Federal party,TULF and tiger proxy TNA had been doninating Jaffna for decades and now it has changed.Pro tiger TNA knew even before the election that they were going to lose.Atleast in the future EPDP wont take Tamil youtghs towards violence like the FP,TULF and tiger agents TNA did in the past.

Dayan Jayatilleka said,

August 11, 2009 @ 5:24 am

For far less speculative and personalised and far more objective assessments of the Northern vote, read Dr Jehan Perera (The Isand) and Harim Pieris ( Daily Mirror). As for the arithmetical calculation of the Jaffna vote, Jehan makes an interesting point, as follows:

“…By way of contrast, the elections on August 8, 2009 were conducted in a peaceful manner that evoked memories of a bygone era before the armed Tamil militancy took the upper hand in the North.

The Northern elections defied expectations by being virtually incident free. Initially there was an expectation that these elections could follow the pattern of the elections in the East in 2007. At those elections the LTTE’s breakaway Karuna group renamed TMVP was liberal in its use of violence, intimidating candidates, voters and election officials alike. The government’s security forces rarely intervened to enforce the law. But at the recently concluded Northern elections the situation was different. Perhaps this reflects the aberrant nature of the LTTE period, which held an entire society in the thrall of violence.

Some of the contesting Tamil political parties retained paramilitary forces to protect themselves from the LTTE, but also had a reputation for using their weapons to intimidate and coerce the civilian population. Credit must be given to the leaders of these parties for ensuring that their cadre who retained their arms restrained themselves to practice non-violent politics. Perhaps they had the political sense to realize that they could not aspire to be mainstream leaders of the Tamil people if they continued to engage in intimidation and coercion. As a result the verdict at the polls is likely to reflect the sentiments of the Northern electorate at this point of time, despite shortcomings.

One such shortcoming at the Jaffna elections was the utilization of an electoral register that had not been properly updated. As a result although the electoral register led to the issuance of 100,747 polling cards, only 54,000 of them could be delivered. It is likely that the balance is not living any longer in Jaffna. The bloated figure in the electoral register also gives rise to the impression of a lower participation rate in the election than is actually warranted. The 18 percent participation figure was based on a non-existent electorate of a 100,000 when in reality the amount of voters was half of that. This would approximately double the effective voter participation rate.”

- Implications of the Northern election verdict
by Jehan Perera

indi said,

August 11, 2009 @ 8:20 am

Isn’t the point elections rather than one particular party winning?

If people want to stick it to the government that’s fine by me, as long as they participate in governance.

TamilDiaspora said,

August 11, 2009 @ 10:31 am

I agree with Aachcharya that it was loss for EPDP & government and victory for Tamils’ quest for self-determination. Jehan Perera & other Peacenik who were apologetic to LTTE earlier, now they are doing the same with government and its allies. Instead of coming up with the excuses like bloated numbers, people were not there & other trivial reasons for the Tamils’ boycott of the elections, these peaceniks could have warned it forehand without writing columns and conducting polls supporting the elections. It was government’s responsibility to make sure the electoral process held without any hiccups, after all it was governments decision to hold the election in haste ignoring the pleas made by the Tamil parties. With all fan fare doing Northern Spring and releasing three thousand IDPs to vote for EPDP/govt, they couldn’t even get clear majority. While TNA cannot celebrate much about the government loss either as the citizens of Jaffna would have also been bitter towards TNA as it was pussyfooting the LTTE and ultimately leaving the Tamils in pathetic state in IDP camps. Otherwise they would have chose to vote for TNA. Overall huge victory for Tamil Nationalism and unquestionable thirst for Tamil’s self-determination. At the end loser is government and the victor is the people of Jaffna in the electoral process.

President Bean said,

August 11, 2009 @ 10:46 am

indi…are you the guy who writes article 14 in the ‘Sunday Leader?’ If you are, ha…if you continue writing the way you do…in a couple of years time you might be made media minister when Namal Rajapaksa becomes President! Better still…why don’t you switch to the ‘Daily Noise’ or the ‘Observer?’ Your talents are lost at the ‘Leader!’

Migara said,

August 11, 2009 @ 11:43 am

@ President Bean

No one has answered how the devolution of power helps majority of Tamils in SL, who are living mainly in central and western provinces, which are heavily populated by Sinhalese.

The better option may be to devolve power geographically, not in a racial basis. For that current absurd district borders has to be erased and new borders has to be defined. Defining it by using watersheds of rivers or rivers themselves in SL will be beneficial because most of the Lankans are still farmers and it will help to solve problems.

President Bean said,

August 11, 2009 @ 2:20 pm

Migara…the 13 Amendment was brought in especially for the benefit of the tamils in the north and the tamil speaking people (muslims) of the east! For Gods sake just implement the entire 13th Amendment without beating around the bush! You majority guys will never get it no? We minorities do not want to live under the jackboot of the majority! We will rather die on our feet than live on our knees!

ps: I am not a Buddhist…nor am I a Hindu…

jayathilaka said,

August 11, 2009 @ 3:29 pm

One like Jehan perera and Dayan jayathilaka who appeared on behalf of separatists under the guise of NGOs are now changing their tune and talks about implementing 13th amedment.They cant they way where the winds blows.Presidenta has no mandate to do it even if he has implementing the 13th amendment will agrevate the problem rather than solving it in the long run .for the simple reason that geographically it creates lot of problems (ex Mavil Aru Problem) and also since there is anoter minority “Muslims” living in north and east one day they will demand more powers vested in their regions and theere willl be eternal wars .and that is exactly what the Internation coummunity needs and these guys are supporting them.

TamilDiaspora said,

August 11, 2009 @ 7:29 pm

The government will never win the hearts and minds of the Tamil-speaking people of the Island; simply it doesn’t have the vision, courage and the right peoples its hierarchy to do so. The Tamils gave clear mandate in 1976 and subsequent elections that they want their inalienable right of self-determination and they have no interest in getting bananas or getting involved in the monkey business. The constitution of Sri Lanka, and the mindset of majority Sinhala Buddhist will never allow Tamil speaking people getting any substantive devolution in the Island. Only way any solution brought or any solution will found for Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem by force by India and/or international community as the way it found in former Yugoslavia or at worst South Ossetia type solution imposed by India, the both have high likelihood the way things shaping up in Sri Lanka.

oriental said,

August 11, 2009 @ 10:59 pm

Just to recount what a lot of the later analysis has been on about, it seems the actual voter turn out was closer to 40% in Jaffna than 20%. The Sunday (or was it Monday?) papers were full of it and the logic seemed to hold true. If the report is true, registering dead or displaced/interned people is inevitably going to lead to a low voter turn out.

On the ability to freely campaign, while it obviously is relevant and important to creating a truly democratic representative system of governance, I’m interested to know to what extent party loyalty plays a role in politics in Jaffna.

For example, Colombo would never be won (sans ballet stuffing) by the SLFP/UPFA no matter how ever much they campaign. Considering the long and complex pedigree of many of the parties that contested in the MC election I wonder if voters would actually have been swayed to the TNA or the EPDP based on policies. Is it the policy or the personality that matters in the end? If it’s the latter, the ability to hire a vehicle wouldn’t have much played on the result of the vote.

Also, I note with regret Achcharya’s obsession with ethnic thinking. Possibly, he’d just being practical in assuming all muslim votes would go to the muslim candidate. Reminds me of the famous election banner from a general election in the 50s – “ooth kupadiya, mooth kupadiya. Ape kupadiyata chande deepung!’ (‘that guy’s a crook and this guy’s a crook. just vote for our own crook.’) It is a sad result of the nature of politics in Sri Lanka. Just an observation.