Sri Lankans caught by election fatigue

by Asanka Fernando

COLOMBO, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Elections happen far too often in Sri Lanka leading to almost election fatigue. An election has happened in the island nation every year between 2005 and 2010, barring 2007. The frequency of elections have discouraged bored voters from coming to polls with turnout dropping below par.

Tuesday's presidential election comes two years early. The incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa opting for a snap poll to ride on his popularity among the majority Sinhala community following his military success against the Tamil Tigers who fought a destructive 30-year war to set up a separate homeland for the Tamil minority.

"We all have to be grateful to the president. He gave leadership to finish the war which no other leader before him could do," Ranjith Perera, a businessman said.

"We can send our children to school without any fear. Now there is no chance of bombs exploding in buses. We need to thank the president for that,"Athula Sampath, a young father of two children said.

The opposition parties, however, said there was no public cry for a snap presidential poll. The public was bracing for the parliamentary election which constitutionally needs to take place after April this year.

"I can't understand why the president decided to hold a presidential election when he had two full years left in his term, " said Ajith Rohana, a fruit seller in the capital Colombo.

"Elections are good but can we afford the high cost?" Rohana queried, adding that the life gets badly affected in the heat created by politicians at election time.

The current election is expected to cost some 10 billion rupees (about 87 million U.S. dollars) but no estimates have been made on the cost of delays and slowing down of business and investment activities.

"The Sri Lankan democratic system has its own peculiarities and the number of elections is a peculiar element of the Sri Lankan political system. We have a lot of democratic institutions but not democratic politics," Sunil Bastian, an academic said.

"This election is most unwelcome at this time. The war ended only six months ago. The government should have allowed the country to return to normalcy. Why hurry when the president could have stayed in office until 2011?" T. B. Samarasiri, a retired school teacher said.

The Tamil minority view the election differently from the majority Sinhalese. Rajapaksa's military campaign was not one in which they felt comfortable. The Sinhala nationalism and related rhetoric left the minorities isolated in the euphoria of victory over the Tamil Tigers.

The Tamil minority on whose behalf the Tigers fought seem to favor the main opposition challenger, former Army chief General Sarath Fonseka.

"Tamils are in a serious predicament. They cannot ideally back both. It was the president who led the war against them and Fonseka was his main commander. They seem to think that the president is the greater enemy," an unnamed journalist said on the main Tamil party's decision to back Fonseka.

Rajapaksa or Fonseka -- Sri Lanka is beset with enormous challenges. If the Jan. 26 election provided answers, it is the major Sri Lankan guessing game right now.