By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –

International Electoral Affairs Symposium , Jodhpur India, 25 July 2024 – By the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) London, in collaboration with the State Election Commission of Rajasthan.

We need a T.N. Seshan to Inspire us all. The Hindu described T.N. Seshan (1932-2019) | as the man who cleaned up the Indian electoral system. He did not accept the EC as a Government Department, insisting he reported only to the President of India. No mincing words. We in Sri Lanka need an independent Commission for free and fair elections. Without this, all our conferences, reports and plans are a bluff and  show-biz

Politeness should not make us stop speaking against evil. I will not be polite.

General Shavendra Silva shown here, as the US put it, is accused of War Crimes – killing hundreds of Tamils – “gross violtions of human rights, namely extrajudicial killing …” He and his family are prohibited from the US.

In someone’s idea of a joke: He was seated next to me at an EC dinner. What would you do? It is like the Indian EC treating the SL EC with respect.

In Sri Lanka, Impunity Reigns: The Head of the Election Department, the Commissioner, was under the President until the 19th Amendment of 2015. When the Rajapaksas bribed the LTTE to prevent Tamils from voting in 2005. Rajapaksa was elected President. But the election was not cancelled by the Commissioner as he ought to have done. The Crimes during the Civil War are seen as a necessary evil. Crimes that occurred are denied.

Are claims of genocide fake? No, no one kills to fake these pictures shown.

The 2015 elections raised hopes that were smashed: The Rajapaksas were booted out. Maithripala Sirisena Elected President. Ranil Wickremesinghe Made Prime Minister. The Main Promise to abolish the Executive Presidency was ignored. The 19th Amendment left the presidency untouched.

The 19th Amendment, A Brief Respite: The 19th Amendment introduced the independent EC where a Constitutional Council appointed members. I am a Tamil and became a Member without having to be a government stooge. Before, any Tamil to be appointed in government had to be a stooge. The previous Election Commissioner was now Chairman. He tended to continue his old ways. The staff saw him as boss. The Press referred to him as Head of Commission or Commissioner although he was Chairman and merely one of three members. He never corrected it and according to reports met the President alone, even drafting Gazettes by the President calling for unlawful elections. If not, after his term ended, the Commission could have risen to full independence.

Unfortunately, the 19th Amendment was abolished by the 20th when the Rajapaksas returned in 2020. This Amendment abolished the Constitutional Council. The Election Commission is now appointed by the President after obtaining the observations of Parliamentary Council.  The EC is now said to consult the stars (Raahu Kalam) prior to setting election dates.

Deliberately or not a whole area was not counted at the Wennappuwa Council Vote-count. The advantage went to the UNP.

The staff knew of it and one of them leaked it to me. I raised it at the Commission. The Chairman claimed he did not know and raised hell with the clerk responsible for the leak. The SLPP caught the mistake. The official position of the Commission is that we are always accurate in counting. The Chairman by himself came to an agreement with the SLPP that they would accept the results as declared and make no announcement.

What of the rights of the voters? The people whose votes were not counted were disfranchised by the Commission. I wrote in the press and was ignored. What does it say about the Independence of the Commission? With the Chairman making agreements as if he is the Commission, the Commission was not independent.

We had high standards of democacy for Sinhalese eroded by both party groups, the rightist UNP and the Leftist SLFP. But not for Tamils. In 1947 more than half the Tamils were disfranchised by the UNP. Nehru went along. Anything to placate the Sinhalese. In 1964 the SLFP colluded with Lal Bahadur Shastri in repatriating the now stateless Tamils. With China and Pakistan in mind, it was yes to everything the Sinhalese wanted, including Katchai Theevu and logistical support to the murderous Sri Lankan Armed forces.

Democracy among Sinhalese was still intact. E.g., for having an election meeting at Mariamman Temple in Nuwara Eliya; and for uttering untruths about the opponent’s character Gamini Dissanayake was unseated as MP by Court.

But when rights of one section are violated, everything ultimately goes down the drain as has happened in Sri Lanka.

Today Nobody is Punished

It is the nature of the country, especially after thousands of soldiers who killed cannot be punished. The President has known crooks on his cabinet because he needs parliamentary support. We need a strong judiciary which alas shows signs of corruption. We need a strong police force which alas is corrupt. We need a strong Election Commission which alas consists of persons worried about their reappointment.

Punishments Must be Real to Enforce the Law. Donothing EC Stooges look for Reappointment. The Most Violated Law – Campaigning at Religious Establishments. No punishment unlike before.

No hate speech or anything against women said the law. But no punishment for Muslim leaders for preaching against women candidates on Fridays from mosques in Puttalam, Mannar. The Commission only pleads with them to stop! – that is electoral politics.

The Anglican Bishop was let off for releasing a written report against the Rajapakses from the cathedral because he did not utter those words as in the law.

Anglican Bishop Dhilo Cangasabey who deserved incarceration was let off on semantics.

Local Government Elections 2018 were a tsunmai of violations

Vote only for those who can save the Tamil language and the Saiva religion said posters in Jaffna by Siva Senai inspired by the BJP with impunity fostered by the EC. Impunity is Widespread.

As the country seemed to shift back to the Rajapaksas, the EC Chairman also seemed to shift. When Wickremesinghe’s government was dissolved in 2018 and I challenged it in the Supreme Court as a violation of my fundamental rights to force me to hold an unlawful election, I was alone in the Commission. I was ably and successfully represented in court by Hejaaz Hizbullah. Then after the violence unleashed against Muslims and the bombings, he was arrested and held without charge for at least two years.

Loss of Civic Rights Imposed only on Srimavo Bandaranaike under JR Jayewardene in 1980 for Abuse of Power. Jail Sentence is rare. Fines typiclly Rs. 500. Those charged are petty workers who put up illegal notices.

The Local Government Elections of 2018 showed a swing to the Rajapaksas’ new SLPP. The Emboldened SLPP Attacked the Commission for my charging them for violations – “If you act against us, we will remove you from the Commission,” Prof. GL Peiris seemed to threaten us. At another time he issued a press statement that a saboteur was hiding in the Commission. Dayasiri Jayasekara the General Secretary of the SLFP threatened to sack us although only Parliament could. It was a tense time. The Commission was weak although we could not be removed.

This milieu opened up a free for all. Maviddapuram Kandasamy Temple was the centre of a Tamil Congress election meeting. Taking the cue from GL Peiris they attacked me. Strangely the police charged the priest, not the politicians.

The Magistrate Jude acting on a complaint against my initiating charges, blasted me without even issuing summons. The priest asked me to join them saying I belonged there because my grandfather, The Rev. Canon Samuel Sangarapillai Somasundaram, had the right to raise the flag there with the honorific title Kodimara Sangarar. The Tamil Congress  wanted the Commission to remove me though the Commission had no such power. A Judicial Service Commission inquiry cleared me but the report disappeared with no known punishment to Judge Jude.

Having failed here, the Tamil Congress’ Jaffna Mayor Viswalingam Manivannan issued a speech (Valampuri 18 Jan. 2018) saying  “One who wrote many different essays in favour of the Tamil National Alliance has been appointed as an administrator [sic.] in the Elections Commission. His full-time service is to figure out what we do and figure out how to stop it. We wish to tell him one thing at this time:

‘Until 10 Feb. 2018 you do your attacks. On 11 Jan. attacks on you will begin. You be ready to face them. We are saying this pleasingly with responsibility. If you pull us into dirty work, we too will not let you be’.”

The Commission took no action and I had to file a private police complaint. For over a year, the police did not file the CD I submitted recording his speech. An Acting Magistrate from the Children’s Court, as if by arrangement, suddenly appeared and unlike acting magistrates who usually postpone the case, threw out the main evidence (the CD) saying it is not fair by the accused to have delayed so much. No reprimand of the police. The AG asked for the file and has sat on it so far for 5 years. So no date can be fixed for the next hearing. By now I do not remember details. It is my belief that the judiciary and the AG’s are corrupt.

Prof. GL Peiris announced that there is a saboteur at the Commission because at the Jaffna and Vavuniya Kachcheris Angajan Ramanathan and Douglas Devananda held on to their privilges as Development Coordinators and I intervened asking them to forego the privileges once the elections were announced.

Continuing the harassment, when Sri Lanka Evacuated Students in the UK during COVID including my daughter Elilini at Cambridge. Landing in Colombo she was interviewed following 2 weeks of expensive, compulsory quarantine in a 5-star hotel at our cost. Someone at Jetwing made good money.

Interviewed on landing, she said, inter alia, “We were packed like sardines. The fumigation was not comfortable.” Reflecting their venom, putting sardines and fumigation together, newsreports said, ungrateful Election Commission Member’s daughter demands she should have been served smoked salmon for food.

It reflected Sri Lanka’s competency in English as well as the administrative incompetency of General Shavendra Silva and Dr. Anil Jasinghe in charge of COVID management. She was given an undated Quarantine Certificate (effectively valid forever) stating she Underwent the necessary quarantine process. However, the two now claimed she needed 2 more weeks of quarantine from home.

Harassment Continues

Given the certificate and no intimation of further quarantine, I took her home in Jaffna stopping at the office to pick up my bag. The story was spread that I had brought my daughter escaping quarantine. The Chairman evacuated the building and had it disinfected.

My car number plate was given to the army. I was checked all the way to Jaffna – 9 times as I recall. Embarrassed soldiers said they were asked to check us but not for what. The police came home no sooner than I had arrived. My driver was detained for a day without charge. The Chairman then intervened to get him released!

Most Commission drivers refused to drive me after that but no action against them by the Commission. Transport to and from office was stopped only for me as EC Administrators blocked it. They in my view would never have done it unless instigated.

Presumably embarrassed by his incompetence in cornering me, Anil Jasinghe made a claim in the press that my taking my daughter to office was Unethical.

During the 2018 elections Karuna Amman said things against Muslims and broadcast them as a video. I filed that at the Commission but it disappeared or at least the Commission failed to act.

Audits: The only hold on independent Commission Members is through audits. The claim was made in newspapers that I had been corrupt in using a Commission car whereas the use was authorized by the Commission  and minuted. I was audited and cleared.

I was given housing, but suddenly asked to vacate because of reconstruction and without my asking given about Rs. 900,000 for alternative housing in my last 6 months. The chairman too was in the same boat and was paid a much larger sum. His ministry friends had organized it. That was a lot of money for more than 6 months’ rent. I was audited for that too and cleared.

Then MAM Nilam of Thinakaran (a government newspaper) published an interview with Chairman Deshapriya. In that interview, the Chairman reportedly said that I am a nuisance; that the Commission decided to report me to the Constitutional Council (although I did not know about the meeting that decided this);  and that if no action is taken, he, the Chairman, would resign.

I was given an audio recording between Nilam and the Chairman’s PA Rizan Manzil that
Thinakaran would publish a disclaimer that the Chairman gave that interview.

I never saw the disclaimer. The Chairman never resigned as he habitually threatened when he wanted to have his way.

The Chairman was in my view the author of this Fake News Interview.

Despite the claim in the audio recording, a new article by Nizam was headlined “Battle Flag Raised by Commission against Hoole.”

A few days later, the Thinakaran stated that the CID had announced that there was a police inquiry against me for violating quarantine law.

I was never invited for an inquiry. But it kept me worried for some time. This is the first time I am telling my wife about the police inquiry as she listens to me and sees these clippings. I had to spare her the agony.

Chairman Deshapriya then denied giving the Interview. If truly fake, why no action against the Government’s own newspaper? Against Nizam? Against drivers who refused to drive me?

The 19th Amendment was working! I could not be touched for doing my job.

As the 2020 Presidential elections neared, Ali Sabry, Gotabaya’s right hand man issued a speech telling Muslims that the elections were over, Gotabaya has already won, and they should vote for him and claim his victory as theirs. Otherwise, he said, they would be given Ambaanai (a thrashing). I filed a complaint at the EC and it disappeared (although the EC maintains a fat book of complaints  maintained by many staff members).

This was a time the SLPP wanted control of everyone by whatver means. The police called me to Colombo to give a written complaint against Karuna Amman and his anti-Muslim speech. It was to ensure that he was on a tight leash. I refused saying the police did nothing for 2 years and I did not wish to be used for political ends. Similarly at the same time, TV host Sri Ranga of the Minnal program had an accusation that he had run over and killed someone while driving in Vavuniya and got his driver to take the blame. Now suddenly the ploice opened up the case. With such corrupt police who are willing tools of their political masters, no free election is possible in Sri Lanka.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected President with 65% Sinhalese vote, promising no inquiry aginst military killers of Tamils. Not one person was elected MP from Ranil Wickremesinghe’s party (although he took for himself the 1 seat the party earned on the National List). For inter-communal peace it was a disaster since 65% Sinhalese wanted no punishment for Tamil-killing Sinhalese. Since then I have found it difficult to trust any Sinhalese as it seemed that only 35% Sinhalese did not support Tamil-killers.

The 20th Amendment was enacted abolishing Independence of EC. Corruption blossomed, leading to the Aragalya of 2022 (meaning Struggle).

There were massive protests against the corrupt government from March 14, 2022.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned as President on 14 July 2022, and went into self-exile  and  returned to Sri Lanka on 2 September after his MPs had installed the unelected Wickremesinghe as President on a vote by Parliament on 20 July 2022.

Troops raided Galle Face on 22 July 2022 and forcefully removed protesters from the Presidential Secretariat occupied by protestors.

Government MPs whose properties were destroyed have been given compensation by Wickremesinghe, although the Tamils whose properties were destroyed in riots organized by his party have not been compensated. Nor those killed by the Rajapaksa government in 2009.

The Diplomat, 21 Feb. 2023, says Govt. Develops Cold Feet, Calls Off Local Elections. The 2023 budget had Rs. 10 billion for LG elections in 2023. Elections were set for 25 April 2023. Fearing that it will be routed in elections, the ruling party claimed that elections amid the economic crisis are a bad idea. When the opposition went to court, the EC said it would hold the elections. So the court felt no need for an order.

Abuse of Funds by EC because denying funds is denying democracy. Vague budgets: 1) Budgeted  for 2023 LG Elections Rs. 10 billion; 2) According to Morning Leader 22 Jan. 2023: Just over 9 billion; 3) According to Diplomat 21 Feb. 2023: $27 million @ Rs. 365.9936 for a dollar = 7.1832 Billion. Something very wrong.

As I have seen, nationlised fleets of vehicles for elections are freely misused during elections. Even peons are chuffeuir driven home. Parcels of food are taken home in the hundreds. Parties for election staff at holiday resorts. I knew of one party only when I was invited. When I questioned the decision, changes were quickly made to make the union fund it.

Collusion at High Levels as  Retiring Govt. Printer was Re-Hired on Contract. In March 2023: The Government Printer said  ballot papers could not be printed on time for postal voting  scheduled from 21-24.02.2024. She had only received Rs 40 million of the estimated Rs 500 million she said.

On 3 March 2023: SC issued an interim order on the Finance Secretary, and the Attorney General who represents the Finance Minister (Wickremesinghe was the finance minister who as President cannot be named in a suit) preventing them from withholding any funds allocated by the 2023 Budget for the LG Poll.

Cheating a Nation of the Franchise: No money was released despite the SC Order. President Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Minister of Finance who could find no money. April 10, 2023: The Election Commission met with Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena & major parties. April 11: The EC postponed elections indefinitely citing shortage of funds.

We lost democracy and the rule of law at one stroke this April

Will there be elections?

Electricity and Petrol prices reduced recently as if to bribe voters. A sign that there will be elections

22nd Amendment  Bill presented in parliament. A Rs. 10 billion Referendum would be due. A sign that there will be no immediate elections.

Who knows? Wickremesinghe can dissolve parliament and leave the unpopular Rajapaksas high and dry with little chance of reelection. He said on TV news last week he does not care about the Supreme Court. We csnnot sue him as he is President and has immunity in all his egregious acts.

In exchange the Rajapaksas are expected to back Wickremesinghe’s candidature for President. But they seem to be dragging their feet about it.

ANFREL: Asian Network for Free and Fair Elections, has condemned these delays.

WE NEED SYSTEM CHANGE

Full overhaul of Commission, Police, Judiciary and Government. Restoration of the 19th Amendment is a must.

India and the IMF have to stop pretending we are a democracy and stop pouring millions into Sri Lanka to keep the corrupt in power and ordinary people as their slaves.

Note 1: All the videos and audios referred to (by Wickremesinghe on the judiciary, Ali Sabry, Karuna Amman, etc. were played at the meeting even when not in English to show that everything stated here is evidence-backed.

Note 2: On 26 July 2024, the author delivered a Plenary Speech titled “IT and Disinformation” at this conference.