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Sri Lanka Voting Culture must change

Shenali Waduge

On what grounds does Sri Lanka’s voting population actually decide to cast their vote?

While political parties may take pains to prepare very competitive election manifestos does the contents of each manifesto steer the voter to vote? Hardly.

In a voting system that usually rotates governance between the two major political parties in Sri Lanka it leaves little or no choice to the voter but to choose the lesser evil or not cast their vote at all. This has been the practice over the years of elections held and has eventually led the voter to vote based not only any policy but purely based on one’s own personal agenda.

For the less literate in Sri Lanka it is the usual goody bag of promises that steer them to cast their vote. For those who care less who wins or looses it is usually the bottle of arrack and a lunch packet that will make them cast their vote. These are the very people who help the political party secure the much needed votes to come into power.

However, the most regrettable fact is how most middleclass and rich also become party to the farce of voting by the manner in which they blindly vote purely for the parampara allegiance to a particular political party color & the tragedy is that whatever wrong the party does they would still cast their vote for the party and its candidates. An excellent example was the comedy of errors during the Colombo Municipality elections when the people voted for the present Mayor of Colombo thinking they were actually helping to bring members of their favorite color to power.

That really leaves less than perhaps 5% voters who actually vote by studying the policies of the party vying for power. Not that any political party would think this small percentage is significant when it comes to votes! Thus when it is an easy exercise to obtain majority of votes through a bottle of arrack, a lunch packet and the assurance that ones “party devotees” will always vote why would any political party feed the need to worry about a small minority like the 5% who are bothered about the real future of the country?

Set against this backdrop of current voting system and the political forces circulating power between them this leaves little or no hope for the country. The very parties that hold governance are ironically given the mandate by the people to iron out policies for the Nation and it is within this farce that the country has journey throughout post-Independence.

Yet, in a democratic nation if the power lies with the public who elect any party to power, then surely the public should also be given the mandate to question the policies & actions taken by the Government they have brought to power. The public should not have to agonize 6 years of hardship and misery to bring another evil force into power & for the vicious circle to continue unabated.

It is time to wake up to the fact that the merry men in Parliament will never bring forth any solution to any of the ills that prevails in the country if it is likely to be disadvantageous to any of them. Whether they are in the ruling or opposition this is the only common element they all share. Each time any party brings forth recommendations or proposals it becomes a game of keeping the issue dragging on and on & finally taking the entire public for a complete goose ride.

It is time that the citizens become more accountable to not only themselves but also to the Nation & demand that they be given the fundamental rights to hold the Government in power and all other Members associated with the Government directly to the highest court in Sri Lanka for breaking the mandate given to them. It would also be opportune too to finally take the bold steps of demanding that all political party manifestos be legally binding so that the public will have all the right to take to task any Member of Parliament for breaking them.

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