Local government elections in Sri Lanka heighten political instability

Only 266 of the 330 local bodies will go to poll today. Several others have been delayed by legal wrangling between parties and the election commission. Once again, the election commissioner has undemocratically decided not to hold polls for local bodies in six districts of the North and East because some areas are under the control of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The UPFA, the opposition United National Party (UNP), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have all expended significant resources on the elections. Even though local issues, including the collapse of infrastructure and services such as garbage collection, have played a role, broader concerns have intruded into the campaign.

The election is being held in an atmosphere of mounting fears of a return to civil war. Mahinda Rajapakse, the UPFA candidate, won the presidential election last November with the backing of the JVP and JHU. These Sinhala extremists called for a rewriting of the current ceasefire with the LTTE, the dismissal of Norway as the facilitator of the “peace process” and a bolstering of the armed forces—demands that are unacceptable to the LTTE and signal renewed conflict.

Four months after the presidential election, there is also rising dissatisfaction over deteriorating living standards and the UPFA’s failure to fulfill Rajapakse’s promises. Several hundred thousand public sector workers stopped work earlier this month to demand significant pay rises. Farmers have begun a series of protests over their inability to sell their crops.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/sril-m30.shtml