Holding elections is not a choice

The Government has reiterated that holding of Local Government polls amidst a poor financial position could worsen the ongoing economic crisis. According to State Minister for Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, “The Treasury is faced with an extremely dire financial situation. The Government is grappling to allocate funds to make ends meet where the State revenue is insufficient to secure funds for the essential requirements. Against this challenging economic backdrop, the reality of the Government coffers was explained to the Supreme Court also to make a fair decision.”

Last week the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance informed the Supreme Court via an affidavit that any decision to hold the Local Government polls would worsen the economic crisis. The affidavit was submitted in response to a writ application filed by retired Army Colonel W.M.R. Wijesundara seeking a court order to defer the Local Government Election.

Sri Lanka claims to be Asia’s oldest continuous democracy. The two factors that determine this status are the universal franchise that was granted to Sri Lanka in 1931, and the holding of regular, free and fair elections. In the early 20th century, a small elite used to possess the right to vote and therefore determine the ‘will of the people.’ The two ‘big ideas’ that entered the discourse at that time were universal franchise and self-determination. With the acceptance of universal franchise, the notion of self-determination, by which ‘the right of a people to determine its collective political destiny in a democratic fashion’ was defined through the process of elections. In this perspective of democracy, the holding of free, fair and routine elections became the accepted minimum standard.

Therefore, the electoral process is centric to the very democratic concept since it is the institutional arrangement for the arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of competitive struggle for the people’s vote. It is therefore an abhorrent proposition that the current Ranil Wickremesinghe government is considering the holding of local government elections as some choice that has to be determined by economic factors rather than fundamental duty it owes to the people as a country that still claims to be a representative democracy. It also ignores the inalienable right of the people of Sri Lanka for self determination and their ability to express their political will.

The holding of local government elections is particularly necessary for President Ranil Wickremesinghe who holds the highest office in the land without a popular mandate. He was elected through machinations in Parliament mostly thanks to the vote of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). Today he holds office on a mandate extended through the SLPP. However, after the events of 2022, in particular the island-wide mass protests that ousted the SLPP’s president and forced its leader to step down from the premiership, there is reasonable doubt as to whether the SLPP holds the same mandate it was elected on in 2020.

If the President and the current ruling administration are to demonstrate some legitimacy, it would be opportune to demonstrate it through an election. In this case the Local Government Election would be a barometer of the Central Government’s popularity and by extension the legitimacy of the President. By denying the electorate their democratic right of the franchise and an opportunity to express the ‘will of the people,’ the President and his ruling regime are digging deeper into illegitimacy.