Upcoming LG polls, claims, counterclaims and reality

By Vishvanath

The government and the Opposition are girding up their loins for the upcoming local government elections. All signs are that their campaigns will get down and dirty, given the high stakes all political parties have in it.

The ruling JVP-led NPP has been asking the people to enable it to gain control of the local councils as well so that it will be able to serve the public better at the grassroots level. The Opposition is scoffing at the government’s appeal to the public, claiming that the NPP, which has secured the executive presidency and control of the parliament, does not need any more power to carry out its promises to the public. At this rate, it has said derisively, the government will go to the extent of asking for control of even village thrift societies and other such associations to be able to carry out its duties and functions properly.

Why the government is so desperate to win the LG polls is clear. Nothing is more disconcerting to a political party in power than the prospect of losing a midterm election. The NPP has been on a winning streak, and any setback in the upcoming LG elections will invariably be seen as indicative of the beginning of the end of its rule. What led to the disintegration and eventual defeat of the SLFP-led United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government of  President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January 2015, was a decline in the UPFA’s electoral performance in late 2014, when it won the Uva Provincial Council election but it could retain only 19 out of 25 seats it had in the previous council.

So, having scored a mammoth victory in last year’s general election, the NPP finds itself in a situation where it will have to equal or better its electoral performance at future elections.

The so-called anti-incumbency factor begins to take its toll on any government a few months after its formation, and the Opposition tends to gain lost ground with the passage of time as the public tends to become disillusioned with the government in power. It is nearly impossible for any government to live up to the expectations of the public fully, as Deputy Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe, who carried out an effective social media campaign against the last government, and boosted the image of the NPP before last year’s elections, told the Mahanayakes of the Asgiriya and Malwatte Chapters, in Kandy, on Thursday.  

Protests are resurfacing, the latest being the one held by a group of university students on Wednesday and Thursday; they were dispersed by the police, claiming that they had violated a court order banning their agitation. The protesters including members of the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF), which led protest marches against the previous government from the front, especially the one that made President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flee overseas and resign, have likened the pre-dawn police operation against them on Friday to the raid on the Aragalaya activists at Galle Face following the elevation of Ranil Wickremesinghe to the presidency in 2022. Some state sector trade unions, representing health workers and teachers, have threatened strikes unless the government resolves their salary issues. The government made some committee-stage adjustments to its budget under pressure from the Government Medical Officers’ Association, which protested against decreases in doctors’ allowances. The government says it has sorted out issues concerning the health works allowances, but the trade unions representing non-medical health workers are skeptical.

The cost of living remains high, and speculation is rife that rice prices are likely to escalate during the upcoming festive season, and the country will experience a severe rice shortage towards August due to a decline in the Maha season harvest and the government’s failure to build a buffer stock of paddy to make effective market interventions. The problem with prices, according to economists, is that they are sticky; they do not return to previous levels even if the factors driving them up cease to exist. The NPP made a much-advertised election pledge to slash taxes on fuel and reduce the prices of petrol and diesel by at least Rs. 150 a liter. But IMF pressure on the government to increase its revenue to at least 15% of GDP has compelled the NPP to renege on some of its promises. Tax increases have also placed an additional burden on the public, and the Opposition has warned that an electricity tariff hike is in the pipeline.

The government’s anti-corruption drive has been the NPP’s strongest point, but there have been some allegations of questionable deals, especially in the power and energy sectors, since last year’s regime change; independent experts have warned of a move to reduce the amount of power currently being supplied to the national grid from renewable sources so that some corrupt individuals in the power sector will be able to enrich themselves by increasing thermal power generation. These allegations remain unsubstantiated, but the perception of corruption also has a corrosive effect on the image of a government. The NPP has sought to give a big fillip to its anti-corruption campaign in view of the upcoming election, as evident from the arrest of former Chief Minister (CM) of the Uva Province, Chamara Sampath Dassanayake, MP (NDF), on Thursday, over some corruption charges during his tenure as CM. He has been remanded.

Meanwhile, the argument that the NPP government lacks control over the LG institutions and therefore cannot serve the public better at the grassroots level does not hold water. These councils have been under the Executive Presidents since 2022, when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa postponed elections to them for the first time. His successor, Wickremesinghe, did likewise the following year, claiming that the government could not afford to allocate funds for elections owing to the economic crisis.

When elections to the LG institutions are not held after the expiration of their terms, they are placed under special commissioners who report to the Provincial Governors, appointed by the President. So, in the final analysis, unelected local councils are controlled by the President and his party. The same holds true for the Provincial Councils (PCs), which are now directly under the Provincial Governors, who are the President’s representatives. This has been the situation since 2017, when the UNP-led Yahapalana government amended the PC Elections Act. Thus, the Executive Presidents, including Anura Kumara Dissanayake, have controlled all three tiers of government—the parliament (as the Head of Government and Cabinet), the PCs and the LG institutions (through the Provincial Governors).