JOIN USElection to local bodies in Sri Lanka has given the ruling coalition, the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) a sweeping victory. Of the 65 councils that went to the polls last week, 45 were won by the UPFA. The opposition has been decimated with the United National Party and the Janata Vimukti Peramuna failing to take control of even one local body. However, in the Tamil-dominated north and east, the UPFA has been roundly rejected having won only two seats. It is the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), known for its proximity to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that has received the unambiguous support of the Tamil people. It won control of 18 of 26 local bodies in the north and east. The TNA’s election campaign plank was a political settlement to the conflict. It struck a chord with the Tamil population and it swept the polls.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s post-war strategy in the north and east has focused on development. Millions of dollars have been poured into rebuilding infrastructure and creating employment. Yet Tamil voters have rejected the UPFA and thus his development approach to building peace and reconciliation. The Tamils feel that Rajapaksa has done little in the last two years to find a political solution to the ethnic conflict. And this has resulted in Tamils rejecting his party in the elections. The UPFA’s defeat in the north and east must be all the more painful for the coalition as it had invested considerable resources in the campaign. All the efforts of the president, his family members and ministers, the UPFA’s use of the military and militias to intimidate the TNA couldn’t ensure its victory.
Rajapaksa is under tremendous pressure abroad. Calls for the trial of his regime for war crimes are growing louder by the day. The president would have been hoping for a victory in the north and east as that would have helped him to claim that the island’s Tamils were solidly behind him. The election result indicates that they are not. The message from the north and east is that Rajapaksa must set out on finding a political solution immediately. The ethnic polarisation in the country is serious and could turn violent if he continues to procrastinate. He must call the TNA and other Tamil parties to the negotiating table without further delay.