{"id":95891,"date":"2019-12-01T17:11:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T00:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95891"},"modified":"2020-01-10T13:01:06","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T20:01:06","slug":"gotabaya-rajapaksa-seventh-president-of-sri-lanka-part-4-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/01\/gotabaya-rajapaksa-seventh-president-of-sri-lanka-part-4-2\/","title":{"rendered":"GOTABAYA RAJAPAKSA, SEVENTH PRESIDENT OF SRI LANKA Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Revised\n2. 12.19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Presidential election of 2019 was a landmark\nelection. It was the first time that a Presidential candidate had won on a Sinhala\nvote alone. There hadn\u2019t been a previous instance of a Sri Lankan leader\ndeclaring that his victory at national election was due to the votes of the\nSinhala majority, said observers. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/em>I\nknew that it was possible to emerge victorious with the sole backing of the\nSinhala community,\u201d  said President Gotabaya after the election. I\nknew from the beginning that the majority Sinhala community would be the\ndecisive factor in this victory.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was observed, however, that earlier, at the\n2010   Presidential election Mahinda Rajapaksa\nhad also   shown that it was possible to\nwin on the strength of the Sinhala majority vote.  In the 2010 election Sarath Fonseka got the\nTamil and Muslim votes, but Mahinda Rajapaksa defeated Sarath Fonseka by over\n1.8 million votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The popular\nnotion is that President Gotabaya won exclusively with a Sinhala Buddhist vote.\nThat is not correct. The election was won jointly, by the Sinhala Buddhists and\nSinhala Catholics.  The entire Catholic\ncoastal belt (except for Negombo and Wattala) voted overwhelmingly for\nGotabaya, pointed out Fr Vimal Tirimanne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The support of\nthe Sinhala Catholics definitely helped to give Gotabaya   a good majority. It must also be emphasized\nthat Catholic politicians, such as Sudarshani Fernandopulle, worked hard to\nensure his victory. They appeared on the election platform with him. This\nelection has shown, therefore that a combination of Sinhala Buddhist   and Sinhala Catholic votes can win an\nelection comfortably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until\n2019, it was held that that a candidate could not win the Presidency without\nthe Tamil and Muslim vote. At a conference in Cologne, In November2005\nthe Tamil delegates had told Kusal Perera \n\u2018We decide the results, not the south. The\nminorities held the Sinhalese in contempt, observed Chandraprema. The minorities\nknew they could always win against the divided Sinhalese. The 2015 Presidential election confirmed this.\nPresident Sirisena lost in the Sinhala districts. He won because of     the overwhelming majorities received from\nthe north and east.  Maitripala Sirisena won\nbecause the majority of the minority and a minority of the majority voted for\nhim, said critics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gotabaya\nRajapaksa\u2019s election has challenged the notion that a candidate could not win\nthe Presidency without the Tamil and Muslim vote. The myth that\nno candidate could win without the support of the Tamil and Muslim political\nparties, has been exploded, said analysts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2019\nPresidential election showed that a presidential election could be comfortably\nwon without support of minorities   provided the Sinhalese voted in a single\ngroup.<\/strong> Up to now, there was no strong united Sinhala vote. The Sinhala vote\nwas divided between the SLFP, UNP, JVP and left parties.  This time, the Sinhala voter rallied round\nGotabaya Rajapaksa, magnificently   and\nvoted for the Pohottuwa. The Tamil Separatist Movement can no longer dictate at\nelections, said analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a sizeable \u2018minority\u2019 vote going to\nSajit Premadasa in 2019 too. The TNA, SLMC (Sri Lanka Muslim Congress) and the\nACMC (All Ceylon Makkal Congress) delivered the entire northern and   almost all eastern polling divisions to\nSajith Premadasa. The South infuriated by the  \nalleged UNP-TNA deal, voted heavily against Sajith Premadasa. The Sinhala vote was so large that the\nsignificant gains in Jaffna, Vanni, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Digamadulla\nelectoral districts were wiped out in the final count. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minorities could always pull off another\n2015 style coup in the next election by ganging up behind a Sinhala leader who\nwas willing to do their bidding, but that would then lead to another 2019 type\nof election, observed Chandraprema. After 2015, voters will now always be\nvigilant at every election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamil and\nMuslim voters have been voting for their candidates and for Tamil separatism at\nevery election. No criticism has been made about a \u2018communal vote\u2019 then .But\nafter the 2019 elections, where Sinhalese voted en masse, critics complained\nabout a \u2018communal vote\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent\npresidential election is a clear indication of the fact that voting has taken\nplace based on communal lines, said Jayatissa de Costa. Especially after 1977\nit is very evident that Sri Lankans cast their vote based on ethnicity and this\nmust be stopped. Sri Lanka\u2019s voting\ntrend based on ethnic lines is not a good thing for the country as a whole, he\nconcluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those supporting\nthe   Tamil Separatist Movement have made\nstrong comments about the 2019 election. In what many have noted to be a\ndisturbing trend, the North and East voted overwhelmingly for Premadasa, they\nsaid. That was expected, but what was not expected was the scale of his victory\nin these districts, they continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premadasa\npolled over 80 per cent of the vote in the Jaffna and Vanni districts and over\n70 per cent in the Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts and over 60 per cent in\nDigamadulla. Its magnitude has been an\neye-opener they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamils vote in 2019 was \u2018worse\u2019 than in\n2015, they continued. In 2015 Mahinda Rajapaksa, in 2015, received 20% of the\nNorthern vote, 26% of the Eastern ballot, and 24% from the N&E vote. Maitripala Sirisena, who received 72% in\n2019. Gotabaya Rajapaksa received only 8% of the Northern vote, 24% of the\nEastern ballot, and 18% of the total N&E vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The low scores for Gotabaya Rajapaksa compared\nto Mahinda Rajapaksa are not surprising. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been depicted\nfor the last few years as the person who unleashed the army on the \u2018innocent\nTamil people\u2019.  Mahinda Rajapaksa on the\nother hand, went around saying that the war was not against the Tamil people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The voting pattern is not as bad as it looks.\nThe North and east had the lowest voter turnout. Voter turn out in Jaffna was 68.43%, in Vanni\n76.59%, Puttalam 76.53%, and Trincomalee 78.75%.  In contrast, Hambantota had 87.40 % voting.\nThe population density in the North is also low. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also the question of the so called\npowerful Tamil Diaspora living abroad, who, we are told were very active\nagainst Sri Lanka in the west. They did not come to vote at this very critical\nelection.  That is because such a\ngrouping does not exist. The majority of the Tamils in the west   do not wish to get entangled in the Tamil\npolitics of Sri Lanka. They are not interested and they avoid the separatist\ngroups. The Tamil separatist organizations in the west are hired groups. They\nare of poor quality. The Tamil representatives appearing at the Human Rights\nCouncil, Geneva are proof of this. They look and behave like thugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\nTamil vote for the defeated Sajith Premadasa has been interpreted as a great victory\nfor Tamil Separatism. The Tamil National Alliance requested the people to vote\nfor Sajith Premadasa and for his symbol the Swan, said Leader of the Tamil National Alliance R.\nSampanthan  .Accepting our request and\nrejecting the call to boycott or to vote for a Tamil candidate and by voting\nfor Sajith Premadasa the Tamil people have sent a clear message to the leaders\nof our country and to the international community, that the Tamil people are\nfirm in achieving their rights, within a united, undivided,  indivisible country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On behalf of the Tamil National Alliance, I\nwish to take this opportunity to thank the Tamil people who followed our advice\nand voted for Sajith Premadasa and his symbol of the swan. I also urge that\nthis unity must be preserved and continued said Sampanthan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampanthan urged President Gotabaya to\n“respect the very substantial democratic verdict of the Tamil people of\nthe North and East.”The people belonging to all Administrative and\nElectoral districts in the North and the East have very largely voted for\nSajith Premadasa who in his Election Manifesto outlined certain features\npertaining to the resolution of the longstanding national question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Presidential election 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above map of the 2019 Presidential\nelection shows significant new trends. It shows that there is a strong\nseparatist movement along the coast line. But there are significant breaks in\nthis. In Puttalam\nelectoral district, Chilaw, Wennappuwa, Naththandiya and Anamaduwa were won by Gotabaya.\nWennappuwa electorate extends to the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 On the opposite side, on the eastern shore,  Gotabaya Rajapaksa won Seruwila due to the\nSinhala population there. Sainthamarathu   also voted \nfor Gotabaya. Seruwila and Sainthamarathu extend to the sea.   It is now possible to recommend that the\nEastern Province be eliminated. The three Eastern divisions should be absorbed\ninto the North Central Province and Uva Province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE In this\nseries, I have used \u2018President Gotabaya\u2019 \nwhere relevant,  \u2018Gotabaya\u2019 and\n\u2018Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019 for events before Gotabaya  Rajapaksa became president. Former President\nMahinda Rajapaksa is referred to as \u2018Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019 throughout. (Concluded)<\/strong>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 2. 12.19 The Presidential election of 2019 was a landmark election. It was the first time that a Presidential candidate had won on a Sinhala vote alone. There hadn\u2019t been a previous instance of a Sri Lankan leader declaring that his victory at national election was due to the votes of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95891","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=95891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}