Sajith Premadasa, leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, party gestures as he arrives at the Election Commission in Rajagiriya to submit his nomination papers for the upcoming presidential election, scheduled for September 21, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), a prominent political party representing Tamils of Sri Lanka’s north and east, on Sunday (September 1) pledged support for presidential aspirant Sajith Premadasa in the September 21 election.

The move, which reflects one significant position within the island nation’s fragmented Tamil polity, comes even as the ITAK’s former coalition partners — along with other political groups — back former parliamentarian and ITAK member P. Ariyanethiran as a “common Tamil candidate” in the presidential race, in which incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mr. Premadasa, and opposition politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake have emerged as key contenders.

Also read: Prominent Tamil party in Sri Lanka seeks governance structure based on federal model

The central committee of ITAK met on Sunday and decided the party will not back Mr. Ariyanethiran, instead announcing its support for Mr. Premadasa, who Tamils voted for in large numbers in the 2019 presidential election, principally to reject Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Further, ITAK sources said the party would request Mr. Ariyanethiran to withdraw from the race, to arrest the apparent divisions within the Tamil electorate.

The ITAK was the chief constituent of the former Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a formidable grouping representing Tamils of the north and east in parliament. The TNA collapsed in recent years amid differences among members. The ITAK, too, is grappling with internal differences that have only aggravated after senior party member and noted Tamil leader R. Sampanthan passed away in July.

Also read: Veteran Sri Lankan Tamil leader Sampanthan passes away

The ITAK’s position on the presidential polls was awaited by many, especially in the wake of party member and legislator S. Shritharan recently endorsing the “common candidate”. His party and parliamentary colleague M.A. Sumanthiran, meanwhile, has termed the idea of fielding a Tamil candidate a “nonsensical one”, arguing that the move would weaken Tamils’ bargaining power with the winning candidate, who will invariably be a contestant from the island’s southern, Sinhala-Buddhist majority.

Tamil voters are faced with different positions of their political leadership, ranging from backing a Tamil candidate, or a preferred Sinhalese leader, or boycotting the elections, as the All Ceylon Tamil Congress has decided to, protesting the many failed promises of past leaders.  

Following the ITAK’s announcement, Mr. Premadasa said on social media platform X: “Together, we’ll create a future where everyone wins — a future with no racism, no discrimination and a future built on unity, strength, and shared purpose.”

Mr. Premadasa, who released his manifesto last week, has pledged a new constitution where Sri Lanka’s current political system would be converted to a parliamentary system “with maximum devolution based on the 13th Amendment under one country”. The contentious 13^th Amendment, which assures a measure of power devolution to Sri Lanka’s nine provinces, was passed in 1987 following the Indo-Lanka Accord. It is yet to see full implementation in nearly four decades. Successive Sri Lankan leaders have refused to part especially with land and police powers although many Tamil leaders see the legislation as inadequate for meaningful power-sharing.

“There is little to look forward to in Sri Lanka,” says Kathir*, who will board a plane to Dubai later this month for an electrical maintenance job, leaving behind his parents, wife and two children. “There’s no other option,” says the 35-year-old, who paid 4,00,000 SLR (roughly ₹1,11,500) to an agent to get on a list of workers seeking employment abroad.

Weeks after his planned departure, Sri Lanka will go to the polls to elect a new President. Citizens will have a say for the first time since the painful economic crash in 2022, when they took to the streets amid acute shortages and long power cuts. The mass uprising booted out former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country and resigned.

“How does it matter who comes to power, when our situation remains the same?” Kathir asks dejectedly. Even with two jobs, as an electrician and autorickshaw driver, he struggles to support his family in the central Kandy district, which is teeming with tourists.

ALSO READ:Remember our history, recognise our labour, say Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamils 

The government is targeting more visitors, so the dollars they bring can refill its coffers that ran dry two years ago. Further, it is hoping to boost its foreign exchange earnings from exports and remittances of workers — $ 5.9 billion in 2023 — who have flown out. Nearly 75,000 workers have left the country in the first quarter of 2024, after some 6 lakh people left during the preceding two years, a stark increase in departures, data published by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment showed.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who replaced Mr. Gotabaya, is seeking a mandate to take forward his government’s economic recovery programme. He unfailingly reminds the electorate that fuel queues have vanished, there is no shortage of gas, and the country is on the path to recovery with the nearly $3 billion International Monetary Fund package he signed. He claims credit for restoring stability. Meanwhile, tens of thousands like Kathir are leaving the country to escape precarity.

Enduring deprivation

Families like his, living in the towns of Sri Lanka’s hill country, may still be relatively better off, compared to those working and residing on the tea estates, according to Ponniah Logeswary, of the Kandy-based Human Development Organization, a non-profit working in plantations and rural areas. “Their plight is dire,” she says.

Kandy is one of three districts in Sri Lanka’s scenic Central Province that is home to a sizeable population of Malaiyaha (hill country) Tamils, apart from Sinhalese and Muslims. The Malaiyaha Tamils, whose ancestors were brought by the British to work in plantations two centuries ago, are among Sri Lanka’s poorest.

Some 1.5 lakh workers, mostly women, from the million-strong community work on tea and rubber estates across central and southern Sri Lanka. The Wickremesinghe administration promised to increase their daily wage to SLR 1,700 (about ₹475). After fiercely resisting the wage hike, some of the companies grudgingly agreed to the rate more recently, but tied to targets that estate workers say are nearly impossible to meet. If fair wages remain elusive to workers, their only savings for the future took a beating when the government decided to restructure its domestic debt by recasting pension funds.

“The promise of a higher wage is a joke, because almost no one gets paid the amount,” says Ms. Logeswary. While criticising the companies for “exploiting” workers, she also blames politicians from the community for opting for “a handout culture”, neglecting the rights of the people.

Fighting for rights

While Sri Lankan voters will directly elect their president on September 21, political parties in parliament are pledging support to their preferred candidate based on past alignment and future alliance prospects in the parliamentary elections expected soon. After battling for citizenship until 2003, members of the Malaiyaha Tamil community — a 1948 legislation rendered them stateless — have been demanding decent housing and land rights for decades.

“About 68% of people still live in colonial-era line rooms and don’t own even a little piece of land. Instead of resolving the persisting discrimination, our politicians want to throw crumbs and cultivate people’s loyalties,” Ms. Logeswary fumes.

Decades of neglect made the community more vulnerable than most others in Sri Lanka during the island nation’s worst economic downturn since Independence. The Malaiyaha Tamils living on the estates feel its many impacts, such as job losses, falling incomes and malnutrition, more acutely. The jolt by the crisis and its enduring aftermath are also severely impacting children’s education in the estates, according to Kanchanadevi Kirubakar, a member of the Ceylon Teachers’ Union. Parents are increasingly unable to afford school transportation, stationery, or electricity owing to the high cost. Families are forced to skip meals. “If Covid delivered a blow to schooling in the remote, estate areas where online classes are impossible, the crisis has only worsened their situation,” she says. 

Poll pledges

Addressing an election rally at a ground in nearby Digana town last weekend, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, who is also running for President, underscored the need to improve digital aids and technology in education and governance.

“You may ask how we can afford all this. We will cut all unnecessary state expenses, punish the thieves and weed out corruption,” he says loudly as supporters cheered.

While Mr. Premadasa’s speech focussed mostly on national issues, voters, especially in the hill country, tend to base their judgment on their immediate needs, observes

D. Mathiyugarajah, senior political activist and Kandy district organiser of Mr. Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB or United People’s Force), offers his views.

“In my experience, voters in the hill country do not always vote for ideology. They vote based on issues that need urgent attention. In that sense, they vote for a promise made by an emissary of a national politician,” he notes.

Sri Lanka’s local and provincial bodies are currently defunct — elections have been indefinitely postponed — bringing residents’ hyper-local, infrastructure-related concerns to the fore. Pointing to the rickety path near her estate home near Kandy, R. Mangayarkarasi says: “I wish someone lays a proper road along this stretch so we can bring a vehicle in case of a medical emergency.”

A retired tea estate worker, Ms. Mangayarkarasi now manages her home and takes care of her toddler grandchild. In her view, an accessible road to her home is as important as better job security for her son, who works in a garage, and daughter-in-law, who works long hours in a garment factory.

Sri Lanka is headed for a national election. While some voters are looking for provincial solutions, even as they navigate the national economic crisis, few voice optimism about any candidate delivering on their demands. There are 38 presidential aspirants contesting this election but many voters in the hill country say they are not spoilt for choice.

(*name changed on request)

Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Thursday (August 22, 2024) found President Ranil Wickremesinghe guilty of “arbitrary and unlawful” conduct, in the postponement of local body elections scheduled last year, even as he campaigns hard for a mandate in the September 21 presidential contest.

President Wickremesinghe rose to the island nation’s top office in July 2022, not winning a national election, but through an extraordinary parliamentary vote. He replaced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country and resigned amid mass protests triggered by a severe financial meltdown.  

While local government elections were due soon after — they would have given citizens a say after the country’s economy crashed — the Wickremesinghe administration maintained it could not afford to spend on an election amid urgent efforts towards economic revival.  The elections to Sri Lanka’s local authorities, scheduled to be held in March 2023 and later April 2023, were postponed. The Election Commission said reasons for the move were “beyond” its control and Mr. Wickremesinghe, who is also Finance Minister, came under sharp attack for “blocking funds” needed for the election.

The government’s position coincided with painful austerity measures, including a steep rise in indirect taxes, introduced by the government as part of its International Monetary Fund-led programme aimed at recovery. Crisis-hit citizens, who were reeling under the impact of high living costs, growing poverty, and joblessness, came under greater pressure.

Opposition politicians and rights groups filed multiple Fundamental Rights petitions in the Supreme Court, challenging the government’s position that they said violated the Constitution. A five-member bench led by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya on Thursday (August 22, 2024) directed the Election Commission to hold the local government election “at the earlier possible”, while holding the “executive branch” liable for the infringement of citizens’ fundamental rights.

The ruling comes at a time when Mr. Wickremesinghe is appealing to Sri Lankan voters to back him, so he can continue his “economic reform” agenda. He faces strong opponents in Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa and Leader of the Opposition National People’s Power alliance Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who are fierce critics of Mr. Wickremesinghe’s policies.

Colombo:

Sri Lanka’s first presidential elections since an unprecedented economic crisis spurred widespread unrest will be held in September, the election commission said Friday. 

The election will be the first test of the public mood since the height of the 2022 downturn, which caused months of food, fuel and medicine shortages across the island nation. 

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75, who took office after street protests forced his predecessor to flee the country, has strongly hinted he plans to run. 

He will face at least two rivals campaigning against austerity measures his government imposed to satisfy an International Monetary Fund bailout package.

The five-week campaign announced by the commission will conclude with a September 21 vote in a country still struggling with a fragile economic recovery and endemic discontent over cost of living issues. 

Economic issues are expected to dominate the campaign as the country emerges from its worst-ever recession in 2022, when the GDP shrank by a record 7.8 percent.

Inflation has since returned to normal levels from its peak of 70 percent at the height of the crisis. 

Wickremesinghe has also successfully negotiated a restructure of Sri Lanka’s $46 billion foreign debt with bilateral lenders including China, following a 2022 government default. 

But his policies to balance the government’s books by hiking taxes and withdrawing generous utility subsidies have been deeply unpopular with the public.

While the months-long food, fuel and medicine shortages seen at the peak of the economic crisis are now a distant memory, many Sri Lankans say Wickremesinghe’s austerity measures have left them struggling to make ends meet. 

Opposition parties have vowed to renegotiate terms of the $2.9 billion IMF bailout Wickremesinghe negotiated last year.

The president’s main challenger so far is Sajith Premadasa, 57, a one-time party ally and current opposition leader.

Premadasa has vowed to continue with economic reforms and the IMF programme but pledged to cushion the public by reducing the tax increases Wickremesinghe imposed to shore up state revenue. 

A leftist party is also fielding its leader, 55-year-old former agriculture minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is campaigning against plans to privatise state companies

Wickremesinghe took office following the government default in 2022, after a huge crowd stormed predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s compound. 

Rajapaksa, who was accused of steering Sri Lanka into the crisis through economic mismanagement, temporarily fled abroad and issued his resignation from Singapore.

Local elections were due to be held last year but postponed indefinitely after the government insisted it had no money to conduct a nationwide vote. 

More than 17 million Sri Lankans over the age of 18 are eligible to cast a ballot.

The election commission has allocated $33 million (10 billion rupees) for this year’s presidential poll.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Sri Lanka’s former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, and Sri Lanka’s former President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Sri Lanka’s powerful Rajapaksa clan, which suffered political battering due to the country’s worst economic crisis in 2022, will launch its political comeback bid on Sunday by targeting the impending elections.

Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, ex-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa were ousted from power during anti-government protests following the crippling financial and political crisis in 2022.

The ruling Sri Lanka People’s Front of the Rajapaksas, commonly known by its Sinhalese name Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), will hold a public rally later in the day in the north central rural town of Thalawa, party member and former Minister SM Chandrasena told reporters.

He said that Mahinda Rajapaksa would inaugurate the rally, aiming to prepare the party grassroots for the major elections — the presidential or the parliamentary.

“We will start our campaign to gear the party for whatever the election that comes first,” Mr. Chandrasena said.

According to the Election Act, the presidential election should occur before the parliamentary elections. The next parliamentary election is not due before August 2025.

On Wednesday, President Ranil Wickremesinghe reiterated his intention to hold the presidential election this year ahead of the parliamentary election.

The SLPP, however, wants the parliamentary election ahead of the scheduled 2025 date.

Earlier this month, the Elections Commission said the presidential election would be conducted at a date between September 17 and October 16.

The SLPP is yet to announce its candidate, while the two major opposition camps have already announced their presidential candidates.

The SLPP went into hiding after the massive street protests began in early 2022, which caused the resignation of the then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The SLPP was forced to elect arch-rival Wickremesinghe to serve the balance term of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

One of the SLPP Members of Parliament was killed by an angry mob. The properties of nearly 100 other party seniors were set on fire in the outpouring of public outrage over their inability to handle the economic crisis.