Anura Kumara Dissanayake, presidential candidate of Opposition political party National People’s Power. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) on Monday (September 16, 2024) vowed to cancel the Adani Group’s wind power project in Sri Lanka if it gets elected in the presidential election scheduled for the weekend.

JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the presidential candidate from the broader front National People’s Power (NPP), told a political chat show here that they would annul the project.

Asked if the project posed a threat to the island nation’s energy sector sovereignty, Mr. Dissanayake said, “Yes. We will definitely cancel it as it threatens our energy sovereignty.” The JVP, which led a bloody anti-India rebellion in the island nation between 1987 and 1990 following India’s direct intervention in the Lankan civil war through the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, is believed to be leading in the unofficial polls ahead of the September 21 election.

The JVP dubbed the Indo-Lanka Accord a betrayal of the nation and killed the then-ruling party members, supporters and other political activists who supported the pact signed between then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and J.R. Jayewardena, the President of Sri Lanka at that time.

A crucial election in Sri Lanka | Explained

The Adani Group has faced fundamental rights litigation in Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court after it got approval for the proposed construction of a wind power project in the island nation’s northeastern regions of Mannar and Pooneryn.

The Adani Group was set to invest over $440 million in the 20-year agreement for the development of 484 megawatts of wind power in the region.

Editorial | Back from the brink: On the Sri Lankan elections and the road ahead

Petitioners have raised environmental concerns and lack of transparency in the bidding process to grant Adani Green Energy the go-ahead.

Petitioners have also argued that the agreed tariff of $0.0826 per kWh would be a loss to Sri Lanka and should be lowered to $0.005 per kWh.

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.

The Rajapaksas’ political party met on Monday to discuss strategy ahead of Sri Lanka’s presidential polls.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or People’s Front) — led by the once-powerful Rajapaksa clan which was deposed from power in 2022 — has said it will not back President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the presidential polls in September.

The decision, announced after the party’s central committee’s meeting on Monday, marks the withdrawal of the Rajapaksas’ support to Mr. Wickremesinghe, two years after they helped him rise to the country’s most powerful office. He replaced former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned in July 2022, in the wake of a mass uprising that blamed him chiefly for the country’s dramatic economic crash.

Ranil Wickremesinghe | From lone MP to PM 

In 2021, Mr. Wickremesinghe was the United National Party’s (UNP) lone MP in parliament, following his party’s poll debacle in the 2020 general election. In May 2022, Mr. Gotabaya appointed him Prime Minister, in place of Mr. Mahinda, who resigned amid the surging protests. After Mr. Gotabaya stepped down in July 2022, Mr. Wickremesinghe won an urgent parliamentary vote with the SLPP’s support, and has since relied on it to pass several legislations.

While Mr. Wickremesinghe earned praise from some for taking over the country’s leadership at a critical time, and “stabilising” its battered economy, his dependence on and association with the Rajapaksas have drawn criticism from those who sought a clean break from the Rajapaksa administration tainted by allegations of corruption and mismanagement. In November 2023, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ruled that the Rajapaksa brothers (Mr. Mahinda, Mr. Gotabaya and Mr. Basil), along with other top officials in their government [2019 to 2022] “demonstrably contributed to” the country’s devastating economic crisis and violated “public trust”, but they faced no consequence.

On their party’s poll-time decision, SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam said Mr. Wickremesinghe’s policies were not agreeable to members. “For instance, our party has a position on whether and how to go about privatising national assets. But the President does not care about national assets or the underprivileged people of this country,” he told The Hindu on Tuesday.  Asked about the candidate the party would field, Mr. Kariyawasam said: “That decision has not been taken as yet,” amid wide speculation that a non-Rajapaksa may be nominated for the first time.

Meanwhile, some SLPP members, especially those who are part of Mr. Wickremesinghe’s Cabinet, are expected to stay with him in the coming election, signalling a virtual split in the SLPP.  

Namal Rajapaksa, son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the party’s national organiser, has blamed Mr. Wickremesinghe for dividing the party that backed him over the last two years. Following Monday’s decision, Mr. Namal, a parliamentarian from the southern Hambantota district, said on the social media platform ‘X’: “With our decision to field our own candidate, we acknowledge past challenges and commit to unity, economic stability, and restoring trust.”  

For now, this leaves Mr. Wickremesinghe with what remains of his UNP —its breakaway faction, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB or United People’s Force), is the main opposition party — a faction of the SLPP, and certain other backers, including from parties representing the island nation’s minority Tamils, Muslims, and Malaiyaha (hill country) Tamils. Contesting this election as an independent candidate, Mr. Wickremesinghe faces at least two strong challengers in Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who leads the opposition National People’s Power (NPP) alliance.

In a media statement on Tuesday evening, the President’s office said 92 legislators, of the 225-member House, pledged their support to him.