{"id":103642,"date":"2020-06-17T16:00:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T23:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103642"},"modified":"2020-06-17T16:02:34","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T23:02:34","slug":"open-letter-to-the-chairman-of-election-commission-of-srilanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/17\/open-letter-to-the-chairman-of-election-commission-of-srilanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Open letter to the Chairman of Election commission of Srilanka."},"content":{"rendered":"

A.Dharmakulasingham, Retired Srilnkan Diplomat<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Hon.Chairman,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Events unfolding in our\nbeautiful island compels me to write an open letter  aimed at inviting  your \nthoughtful attention to the mandate \nentrusted on the election commission to conduct elections in Srilanka.I\ndon\u2019t need to remind the provisions of \nsupreme law of the country ,constitution and other binding laws and\nregulations guiding the conduct of elections.It is not about cancelling or\npostponing the elections. Of course  even\nan average  senior student in Srilanka\nknows election can\u2019t be conducted when the whole world  including Srilanka is gripped by dangerous\ncorona 19A. As  the chairman of the\nindependent commission you are weighing \nthe pros and cons  of conducting\nthe election amidst a pandemic.Meanwhile \nit is your responsibility to look around internally and externally to\naccumulate statistics,knowledge and practices in order to develop an idea of\nthe  appropriateness of conducting the\nparliamentary election scheduled for April,2020.I am not surprised  like millions of  Srilankans by your announcement of the date\nfor   parliamentary election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politics of coronavirus\nlocally and globally poses many  serious\nquestions.President Trump has been very aggressive in  attacking Chinese leadership for corona 19.It\nis understandable Trump  continues from\nwhere he  initiated a  trade war with China. Global leader WHO has\ndismissed the accusation of President Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corona  virus epidemic,  it is a pandemic ,ruined the  social and economic fabrics  around the world. Regardless of  status of the countries  almost the whole world  struggle to  contain the corona 19 and face the  implications of the epidemic. Though it has\nbeen generally accepted that the first reported case was  confirmed in Wuhan city,Hubei province in\nChina ,now  claims are being made  there were deaths in USA and UK in December\n2019 caused by covid 19. Veracity of the claim is yet to be known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists across the board\nare engaged in inventing a vaccine to combat virus. Economic crisis has\novertaken the economic crisis m great recession, of 1930s.Millions of jobs have\nbeen lost. Foreign exchange reserves are drying. Advanced economies though\naffected, the developing countries like Srilanka are hardest hit lot. Lockdowns\ncompelled closing of airports factories, shopping malls ,  tourist hotels, colleges,universities,centres\nof entertainment. Triggering another round of verbal bashing between US and\nChina is not a good news for combating common enemy coronavirus.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole world expect the\nUN ,WHO and other international institutions and the national governments to\nfocus on combating the deadly virus.Countries like France,Newzealand,Germany,India\nhave to a great extent  have been\nsuccessful in combating the dangerous situation.Meanwhile\nUSA,UK,Italy,Iran,Spain and some other countries the impact of coronavirus is\nheavy.Compared to many other countries Srilanka is much safer.Future of the\nglobe in terms of economic recovery looks bleak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politics of corona virus\nis not only limited to USA also many countries including Srilanka faces\npolitical criticism emanating from handling \nof  cronavirus threat to conduct\nof  parliamentary elections  from political opposition,media and  civil societies. While leaders of\ncountries,scientific and medical community,WHO,UN, and other important\ninternational agencies are at the receiving end of constructive criticism  from many quarters ,interested parties  in Srilanka under the quise of protecting\ndemocracy filed several fundamental rights cases  at the apex court in Srilanka praying\nfor  postponing parliamentary elections\namong  other  things. So called champions of democracy from\na country  practicing  franchise from early 30s joined together\nand  pleaded  to postpone parliamentary elections. On top\nof these  developments it was an ugly\nscene at the supreme court hearings when \nElection commission was represented by two legal teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Now the supreme court decision is in the\npublic domain and you are expected to conduct the parliamentary election  on 5th<\/sup> August. Srilanka\u2019s confirmed\ndeaths so far is only 10 whereas  number\none country in the world ,US, despite having the highest deaths  have just successfully conducted the\nelection  on 4th<\/sup> of June 2020\nto nominate presidential candidate  from\nthe Democratic party for 2020 November presidential election.South Korea\nconducted presidential and parliamentary polls on 15 April,20120. Our\nneighboring Indian state Tamilnadu national assembly election is due between\nNovember and December 2020.Political parties are keen to contest the election.There\nare suggestions by  reputed past\ncricketers such as Sunil Gavaskar to stage the IPL in Srilanka.West Indies  are making preparation for touring England\nfor a Test series .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  volatile situation  in Srilanka created by the commission  has been worsened by one of the\ncommissioners, Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole.In a recent  interview given to Dan TV from Jaffna by\nHoole, as a member of independent commission ,he exposed himself as an unfit to\nbe a member of the independent commission.Hoole\u2019s  response to the moderator of the Dan TV\nbecame a laughing stock among intelligent people. During the course of his\ninterview  Hoole ;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.Appealed to the people\nnot to vote for SLPP  as SLPP and media\nsupporting SLPP is hell bound to threaten him by publishing diabolical lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Accused Srilankan\npariliament is replete with robbers, drug smugglers and criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Criticised Hon.Attorney\nGeneral for protecting wrong doers by not initiating legal actions against\nthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hon.Chairman,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoole  response \nportrays himself  as a person  who fascinates  abomination. His ignorance of parliament\nhistory of Srilanka  and the  contribution of many parliamentarians  from the period of  Donoughmore constitution raises question of\nhis suitability to the post of commissioner.Srlanka  is being hailed as a country for twin\nachievements ,health and education, is not a mean   accomplishment. Restoration of the rights of\nSinhala and Tamil language  was a turning\npoint of social and economic upliftment of Srilankans across ethnic  divide though communal leaders try to give\nanother interpretation. This is not the first time one of the members of the commission,Hoole  violated \nhis mandate. Just before the presidential election 2019 he appealed to\nthe people through Tamil media  to vote for\nleast bad candidate. The conduct of one of the members of the commission raised\nquestions about the usefulness of independent commissions and the big picture\nis about the 19th<\/sup> amendment to the constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Election commission need\nnot conduct special trial elections. \n.Instead  observations from\nvarious segments of the population  ,\nhow  people  behave in cities,town and villages during\ncurfew relaxed  periods  could give a clear idea of how  to conduct  a free and fair election.   I \nappeal to you execute the mandate entrusted on the commission by\nconducting the election  on 5th<\/sup>\nAugust to enable the people to exercise their rights of electing a government\nrather than  wasting your valuable\ntime  on defending a estranged  member of the commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.Dharmakulasingham,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retired Srilnkan Diplomat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A.Dharmakulasingham, Retired Srilnkan Diplomat Hon.Chairman, Events unfolding in our beautiful island compels me to write an open letter  aimed at inviting  your  thoughtful attention to the mandate  entrusted on the election commission to conduct elections in Srilanka.I don\u2019t need to remind the provisions of  supreme law of the country ,constitution and other binding laws and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}