VIEWPOINTS

A DECLINE BUT HOPEFULLY NOT A FALL

Wijith DeChickera notes the outcome of the recently concluded local government elections and is concerned about fallout for the government

As electors went to the polls for the third time in eight months, it was with discernibly mixed feelings that up to almost 17.3 million eligible voters (including over 648,000 postal voters) electing their representatives to 339 of the 341 local authorities comprising 28 municipal and 36 urban councils, and 275 pradeshiya sabhas, did – or did not – cast their ballots.

In the vast field of over 75,500 candidates from 49 political parties and 257 independent groups were the leading contenders who had vied against each other in the past brace of elections.

And this time, those traditional parties contested 8,287 seats at governmental levels where cities, towns and villages – and their growth, progress and development or lack thereof – are demonstrably most concerned, badly neglected as many of these more than 4,870 wards are due to lack of devolution, power centres of government being based in the big city and so on.

That the National People’s Power (NPP) emerged the clear winner of the local government (LG) elections overall came as no surprise to many pundits who were wiser after the event.

But to say with any degree of accuracy or certainty what the outcome of these polls would be was to neglect, ignore or explain away the niggles in the NPP’s performance of late… or even gainsay the gremlins in its governmental engines that are sounding less like they did when in opposition.

And a comparison with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led party in power as it performed in the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2024 may be instructive to those who read the tea leaves of government’s trajectory going forward.

In the presidential election of September last year, then chief executive aspirant Anura Kumara Dissanayake garnered over 5.6 million votes (42.3%) to bag the highest office in the land, in a major upset for the traditional rulers of the roost since 1978 when that office was created.

If this is taken as a baseline, there has been a slump of over 1.1 million votes (20%).

On the other hand, the loss of more than 2.3 million voters (34.4%) from the November parliamentary election baseline must give even the more cocksure members of the JVP’s politburo or the NPP’s executive committee pause, as well as the space and opportunity, for reflection as to why they appear to have lost a significant segment of their voter base.

No doubt the typically low voter turnout for LG elections may contribute to the decline of the NPP’s popularity, which seemed insurmountable to the political opposition at May Day when the commercial capital resembled oceans of red flags.

Yet, a savvier critique of its own lacunae in the past four to seven months since sweeping the two previous polls may stand the party in power, as well as a people still hungry and thirsty for competent governors with integrity and results alike, in good stead.

Be these results as they may – and other analyses of the same may offer thought-provoking insights – the expectation and anticipation of electors across the sociopolitical and economic spectrums is revealing of the phenomenon that (yes, once again) the bane of divisive politics has drawn a line in the sand between the governing and general classes.

It has often been the case that political movements, which sweep into and through the corridors of power from time to time, act as a sword that pierces the polity to its heart.

In the last two decades, these – from the juggernaut that swept everything in its path from Kataragama to Kilinochchi (2005-2015); through the ideology that captivated city, chamber and council (‘good governance’ – 2015-2019); to the politically militarised ‘securocracy’ that captured power after the national security fiascos of black April (2019-2022) – have gone from being the toast of the town square to burned toast in sociopolitical backwaters.

If the JVP led NPP is not at pains to be more careful with its ideology, image and integrity, it could go the way of all political flesh before it – towards the cooler if its exponents are relatively fortunate; or the slammer if there is such a decline and fall like that which took place during the popular uprising of 2022, which brought citizens’ sovereignty to the fore… ironic, given the JVP’s aragalaya architecture.

It is also ironic that the NPP’s decline may factor in as causes its paradoxical appeal recently for less trade union agitation about what ails the state of the nation – a surprising departure from the modus operandi of agitators who were past masters at rattling sabre in the streets as much as sloganeering in the house.

Let’s hope the decline doesn’t lead to a fall any time soon. Mostly because when one analyses who came in second and third in the LG polls race, they inspire far less confidence in the com­petence and anticorruption departments than the tyros in the hot seat at the time of going to press.