How not to hold electionsFor Wickremesinghe to maintain his power, he has to honour his promise to hold elections. Local government elections were initially scheduled for March 9, 2023, but they were repeatedly postponed due to a shortage of funds.Their cancellation led to a spate of protests. Police used force to disperse crowds, resulting in 15 injuries. Shortly afterwards, the election commission postponed the elections indefinitely, defying a Supreme Court order.Wickremesinghe then pursued constitutional amendments and appointed a commission to explore changes to the electoral system. So, when the announcement that elections would be held was finally made, it was unsurprisingly received with apprehension by the electorate.The act of delaying elections is an undemocratic move. But these delay tactics appear to be a smokescreen, giving Wickremesinghe time to gather support for his presidential nomination.It looks as if he is aiming to secure support from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, which is led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president and the brother of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This is a calculated move, as it is unlikely that Rajapaksa would have any public backing to make a reappearance as president himself.In November 2023, a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court determined that the Rajapaksa brothers, along with former governors of the central bank and other senior Treasury officials, were responsible for Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.Wickremesinghe is using this extra time as a political ploy too. He has promised to implement the 13th Amendment, a provision of the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord that guarantees a measure of devolution to the country’s nine provinces. This is most definitely an attempt to appease minorities and use power sharing as a political tool to garner support.But it could also have been a deliberate move to appease India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, before his visit to Colombo in January. During Jaishankar’s visit, he supported the government’s debt restructuring plans.Wickremesinghe has used the delay to rush the passing of the Online Safety Act through parliament. Created to provide protection against online harassment, abuse and fraud, this highly repressive law could threaten the right to freedom of expression, which is crucial for free and fair elections.
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