Northern Provincial Council elections: a chance for reconciliation in Sri Lanka
(from Newzzit; the original story is here http://newzzit.com/stories/northern-provincial-council-elections-a-chance-for-reconciliation-in-sri-lanka)
Quick Summary
On September 21, Sri Lanka will hold its first Northern Provincial Council elections in a quarter century, with about 714,488 people registered to vote. This has generated considerable interest all over the world, particularly in the Tamil-speaking population, and is providing a critical chance for reconciliation in post-war Sri Lanka.
SriLankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, himself has appealed to theTamil-dominated Northern province to participate in the democraticprocess and elect their own representatives. "Therewere presidential and parliamentary elections but this is the firstfree election in 30 years afforded to northern people to expressthemselves in a vote. This is a clear indication of new freedom theyare currently enjoying,” he recently told the local media.
Analystshave also argued that Northern Province elections will be a majorstep in bringing Sri Lankan Tamils back to the mainstream inpost-conflict period. This province has a peculiar place in SriLanka's history and politics, as it is geographically an area whereTamils are concentrated and are in majority, in an otherwiseSinhalese-majority country.
Alongwith the Northern Province, two other provinces, Central and NorthWestern, comprising of 10 districts- Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya,Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Vavunia, Mulative, Kurenegala andPuttalam, will also go to pollson the same day.
History of the provincial councils
Sri Lanka has nine provincial councils in all, which were created when Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi brokered the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord in 1987, with Sri Lankan President J R Jayawardene. Under the Accord, Sri Lankan Government agreed to devolution of powers to provinces, passed the 13th Amendment Act to the country's constitution, and established provincial councils enacting the Provincial Councils Act.
But soon after, the elections to the Northern province was suspended due to resumption of war between Sri Lankan security forces and Tamil militant groups – mainly the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which went on for over two-decades and ended in 2009 with the death of LTTE's chief Prabhakaran.
Major political players
The United People's Freedom Alliance(UPFA) of President Rajapaksa, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) led bylawyer R Sampanthan and United National Party (UNP) under theleadership of former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, are themajor political players in the upcoming elections. While the UPFA andUNP are contesting in all 10 districts, TNA has put up its candidatesin only five districts of the Northern Province.
Asexpected, pre-pollsurveyshave given TNA an edge over UPFA in the Northern Province, while UPFAis expected to win in the Central and North Western provinces.
Majorissues in the Northern Province
Issuesof land rights, increased militarisation, and the long-term processof reconciliation and rehabilitation have dominated the electioncampaign. The challenge for any incumbent government will be toaddress these local issues as well as garner support for devolutionof police and land powers at the provincial level, as mandated by the13thAmendment.
International observers
Theinternational community is keenly watching the island nation, withmany organisations sending their observers to ensure free and fairelections. More so, as there have been allegations of gross humanrights violation by the Sri Lankan Government headed by Rajapaksa, ina bid to end the 26-year-long civil war.
TheCommonwealth Secretariat, which is a voluntary association of 54independent countries, will deploy a CommonwealthObservation Missionin the northern province to “observe and consider all aspects ofthe electoral process and assess compliance with the standards fordemocratic elections to which Sri Lanka has committed itself”. Thechairman of the Forum of South Asian Elections Management Bodies hasalso nominated a team of 20 from Afganistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan,India, Maldives, Nepal, and Pakistan, to meet the representatives ofcontesting political parties in the Northern Province.
Onits part, Rajapaksa's ruling coalition, which is banking oninitiatives of rebuilding the devastated infrastructure to entice thevoters, has promised full cooperation and access to the internationalobservers.