A small but significant post-Tiger vote
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - A little over a month after the end of the war between the Sri
Lankan Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), political parties
are gearing up for another fight in Sri Lanka.
Elections to the Vavuniya Urban Council and the Jaffna Municipal Council in the
island's war-ravaged Northern Province are scheduled for August 8. Although the
polls are just for local councils, they are significant and will be closely
watched.
This is the first time in 11 years that Jaffna and Vavuniya will be voting in a
local election. They have participated in presidential and general elections in
this period, but these have been amid
threats and boycott calls from the LTTE. The LTTE is now defeated. And while
operations to track down LTTE fighters on the run are still on, it is in a
post-LTTE situation that Jaffna and Vavuniya - the two largest towns in Sri
Lanka's Tamil-majority Northern Province - will exercise their franchise.
Jaffna and Vavuniya were not in the epicenter of the recent fighting between
the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE as they have been under government control for
several years. But "normalcy" remains elusive.
The government wrested control over Jaffna, once the LTTE's bastion, at the end
of 1995. In the following 14 years, Colombo has retained its grip over the
territory, thanks to a massive military presence in the peninsula. But Jaffna
is ridden with violence. As for Vavuniya, this district hosts hundreds of
thousands of Tamil civilians displaced not only by the final stages of the
operations against the LTTE but also those who fled the fighting over the past
decades. Muslims who were expelled by the LTTE in 1991 also languish in
Vavuniya's camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs).
It is the performance of the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that will
be most keenly watched. This is the first time the TNA will be in the election
fray sans the solid support of the LTTE.
The TNA, which recognized the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamils,
was widely regarded as the Tigers' mouthpiece in parliament. In the 2001 and
2006 general elections, the TNA coasted to victory thanks to LTTE backing. Will
it do as well in a post-LTTE situation?
Pitted against the TNA is President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United People's
Freedom Alliance (UPFA). Of the 29 seats in the Jaffna council, the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party - the core of the alliance - will contest only three; the rest
going to Tamil parties like the Eelam People's Democratic Party (20), Tamil
Eelam Liberation Organization (six) and Eelam Revolutionary Organization of
Students (three).
Also in the fray is a three-party coalition consisting of the Tamil United
Liberation Front (TULF), People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam and
the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front-Varathar.
None of the Tamil parties seems to have been particularly keen to contest the
poll as allies of the ruling coalition.
The EPDP is part of the government. Its leader Douglas Devananda is a cabinet
minister. The party is staunchly anti-LTTE and has been hugely supportive of
military operations against the LTTE, with its paramilitary cadres having
fought alongside the armed forces battling the LTTE in the north. Still, the
party was not keen to contest as part of the UPFA and it was only after immense
pressure from the UPFA that the EPDP agreed to do so.
The EPDP is deeply dependent on the government for the security of its leaders,
several of whom have been targets of LTTE suicide attacks, and it is likely
that this played a role in the party's decision to contest as part of the
ruling coalition.
The TULF's candidate for the post of Jaffna's mayor, Veerasingham
Anandasangari, has been an outspoken critic of the LTTE, refusing to accept its
claims of being the sole representative of the Tamils. Although his position on
the war against the LTTE was in sync with that of the government, he isn't a
part of the government. His party is going it alone in the elections.
The reason for the reluctance of Tamil parties to be seen holding hands with
the government is not hard to find. Many Tamils in the north, though happy to
see the end of the fighting, are uncomfortable with the way the government went
about the war. And it is possible that it will impact the way people vote.
The government's decision to hold local elections in Jaffna and Vavuniya so
soon after the end of the war has kicked up heated debate. Some point out that
there are more immediate problems the government should be attending to, such
as the plight of Tamil civilians in the IDP camps in Vavuniya.
Tamils in Jaffna and Vavuniya town want their relatives interned in the camps -
the IDPs are virtually prisoners and are not allowed to leave as the government
fears there are many Tigers among them - to be allowed to return home. This
rather than an election to the Jaffna council should be the priority of the
government, these Tamils feel.
Critics of the government say the unseemly haste with which the government is
rushing through a local election is to counter criticism it has come under from
the West and rights activists for its conduct of the war and treatment of the
displaced. "It is hoping that the elections in Jaffna and Vavuniya will bolster
its democratic credentials," a journalist working in a Tamil daily in Colombo
told Asia Times Online on condition of anonymity. "It is trying to give its
military occupation of Tamil areas a democratic face."
It does seem that the government is trying to replicate its strategy in the
multi-ethnic Eastern Province in the north. In the East, it conducted elections
to local bodies and followed that up with elections to the Eastern Provincial
Council. In the East, the ruling coalition teamed up with the Tamil Makkal
Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP), the party founded by the LTTE's former eastern
commander Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, aka Karuna Amman, after he broke away
from the LTTE in 2004. It won 20 seats in the 37-member Eastern Provincial
Council.
In the May 2008 Eastern Provincial Council election, election monitors and
opposition parties accused the government-backed TMVP of intimidating voters.
"At almost every station in Batticaloa, rigging took place by misusing the
temporary identity cards issued by the local authorities and opposition polling
agents or election observers were threatened and forced to leave in many
polling stations," Sunanda Deshapriya of the Center for Monitoring Election
Violence observed then.
It is possible that the government's replication of its Eastern Province
strategy could extend beyond aligning with Tamil parties with paramilitaries to
include intimidation of voters and manipulating the vote as well. The EPDP was
formerly a militant organization and its militias are notorious for their
strong-arm tactics and intimidation of Tamils in the North. The government is
expected to allow the EPDP "a free hand in ensuring that the vote goes its
way", the Tamil journalist said.
These are difficult times for the TNA. Its politicians are accustomed to taking
orders from the LTTE. Their positions on issues were determined by LTTE
leaders. With that leadership dead and much confusion over who is calling the
shots within the LTTE now, TNA politicians are groping in the dark. There have
been reports of a serious rift within the TNA. Some politicians have distanced
themselves from the proposed idea of a transnational provisional government.
When TNA politicians go to Jaffna and Vavuniya to woo voters they will be
confronted by pro-government militias. They are likely to miss the robust
backing that the LTTE provided them in previous elections.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
