The ballot in Batticalloa :: TMVP and the Batti Polls

He only lacked a marching band to escort him to the polling booth. It was a confident Sivasuntharai Chandrakanthan better known as Pillayan, now the undisputed head of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) who walked into the polling station at Vipulanandan School, Pethalai, Valaichchenei on Monday morning.

“Now it is not a question of a victory, it is a question of how large our majority would be,” a day earlier his PR manager, Azad Moulana told The Morning Leader at the high walled compound used by most of the senior TMVP cadres on Lake Drive, Batticaloa. Pillayan was not contesting the poll but it was his outfit’s first step towards gaining political legitimacy, and he had bet heavily on a successful polls outcome. With the TNA out of the fray, that result has never been in doubt and as polling day closed in, the TMVP oozed with confidence.

As he cast his vote into the box, Pillayan smiled to the cameras and froze mid frame, the ballot paper at the mouth of the box, just like countless other seasoned and not so seasoned politicians would do. He turned to the cameras, smiled and pushed the paper inside. Quick takeHe did a quick take of questions from the press just outside the classroom serving as the polling booth. His entourage quickly rushed him out of the school when the questioning became too nagging and uncomfortable. “Why don’t you disarm?” he was asked, and answered without a trace of irony, “we don’t carry weapons.”

In theory, none in his entourage were carrying any weapons out in the open. Pillayan was even willing to subject himself to a cursory body search from the policemen guarding the entrance. They were a curious few seconds when Pillayan stood between the two police guards who in turn stood motionless.

But the TMVP is armed. Within the high, white walled boundary of its office at the end of Lake Drive, there were at least one dozen young cadres armed with automatic weapons on the eve of the election.

Despite the new found enthusiasm shown by Pillayan and his party for the ballot, voting was not brisk in the morning hours of Monday. As the few early ‘birds’ ambled nonchalantly to vote, fears of this election for nine local government bodies in the Batticaloa district turning out to be a bloodbath seemed far off the mark.

One of the few to vote early at the Vipulanandan station was Armugam Sivasundarai, Pillayan’s father. “These elections are good, they will bring democracy,” he said and wagged his little finger on the left hand, daubed with dark blue ink.

Multiple displacementsFor some the voting itself was an alien action. Hundreds of thousands who lived in areas under the control of the Tigers less than year back had regained their franchise after a lapse of 14 years.

Some among them had been victims of multiple displacements since 1990.

Kanavathipillai Thangarasa, 62 was savouring the moment. He planned to vote by mid-day. The last time he pushed a marked ballot into a box was in 1994. Most of the ensuing years he lived under the control of the Tigers in Vavunathivu, west of Batticaloa town. The area was gained by government forces mid last year and Thangarasa returned to his village last June having fled yet again three months earlier.

“It is a good thing, these elections,” Thanagarasa told The Morning Leader. He however was rational enough not to entertain dreamy expectations. “Ahh, we won’t get anything.”

The election was more important to those on the ballot paper (box) than to those casting the votes for them, and despite his years out of the democratic process, and Thangarasa was all too aware of it.

Even the TMVP, the clear front runner did not have much of a plan as to how they would proceed in the councils where they expected to secure ruling majorities. “You see, these are very small councils, the power is very small,” Moualan explained. “This is the first step, we can do more in the Provincial Councils.”

Gain sanctionThat was the fear that many like Muslim Congress Leader, Rauf Hakeem held, that the poll was an attempt to gain sanction for the TMVP and the government’s various policies in the east through the vote and then go for the provincial vote. That has now been tentatively set for August.

Such underlying currents did not appear to jar the will to vote, especially in areas that were left with no choice but the Tigers, a year back. The choice not having widened beyond the Tiger offshoot, the TMVP was acknowledged, but appeared to have been forgotten for the time being.

In locations like Vavunathivu women were dressed in their best and had powdered their faces before going to cast the vote. They clutched the polling card and their identity card and walked gingerly to the booths.

A year back, most of these areas were caught between fighting government forces and the Tigers. On February 28 last year, a group of diplomats landing at the Weber Stadium, just outside Batticaloa town came under shell attack from Tiger mortar fire from the Vavunathivu area. Soon afterwards, government forces began their advance into Tiger territory. Vavunathivu, over the bridge was one of the first casualties of the fighting.

During the first week of March 2007 hundreds of thousands fled these areas in whatever they were wearing, clutching whatever they could get hold of. This week the women were looking pretty for the vote.

ConfusingSome had only the ID card that was issued by the Presidential Secretariat after they were resettled in areas gained from the Tigers last year. In some polling stations that form of identification was accepted, at others it was not — like at the Navakkadu Namagal School where polling officials had refused to accept the ID card issued by the Presidential Secretariat. According to some locals the move would end by disenfranchising 40% of those registered to vote at the school.

The acceptance or not of ID papers other than the national ID card and passport had turned into a minor issue when polling closed. There were some like Sunananda Deshapriya from the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) who said some locally issued ID cards had been issued en masse just before the election. “There was an official at the government agent’s office with a seal to issue them.”

Some of those rejected at Navakkadu came in mid-day when the morning’s lacklustre voter turn out showed signs of changing.

PAFFREL, the only organisation that was officially sanctioned to monitor the polls said that by noon the turnout was 35% and no incidents had been reported from the entire district. Heavy polling was reported from the newly resettled areas like Vavunathivu and Vaharai, the latter posting a 70% voter turn out by the time polls closed. Of the 11,000 registered voters over 9,000 had turned up and cast their vote according to initial estimates.

PAFFREL head, Kingsley Rodrigo also said that the election was peaceful. One of the minor incidents involved the CMEV that had initially decided not to monitor the poll. But a last minute change of heart found Free Media Movement (FMM) activist, Deshapariya in Batticaloa with a dozen or so of others for what he termed was an attempt to observe the polls.

They started off well, the CMEV vans with their white flags were in fact outdoing those of PAFFREL’s with the yellow flags. By noon, Deshapriya was complaining that the DIG, Police and the Government Agent had sent out orders not to allow CMEV members from entering booths.

“We were asking simple questions like how many have voted and how many registered, this is a clear denial of information,” he told The Morning Leader.

StandstillAs polls closure neared more voters were making their way to the booths. The entire district however wound down to a complete standstill with shops and commercial establishments closing early.

By the time the jeeps and other government vehicles with their headlights on started arriving at the Hindu College compound at the centre of Batticaloa town, the town became a ghost town. Policemen, election staff and a few journalists made up the entire population out in the town centre.

Unlike at elections in Sri Lanka, when the ballots boxes were sealed and taken out of the booths there was no fanfare, nor were there any party supporters celebrating an anticipated victory.

As counting progressed, initial reports said that as much as 60% may have voted, a high figure for a local government election. Unconfirmed numbers from the counting of the postal votes put the TMVP in front in eight of the bodies except the Batticaloa Municipality. There, EPRLF (NABA), Rasiah Thurairatnam was marginally put in front, by a few votes.

Early morning around 3 a.m. the TMVP was unofficially declared the winner in all nine councils. A few hours later it was confirmed that the TMVP had secured 61 of the 101 seats up for election. It won all eight councils it contested as the TMVP and the Batticaloa Municipality as the coalition partner of the UPFA. All other parties were left to divide 31 seats among them.

No ‘fair tag’The poll was free of any violence on polling day, but no one was willing to give it a fair tag. The ground work for a one horse race for the TMVP was carried out well in advance, almost to perfection, that serious challengers never made it on to the ballot paper (box).

Late Monday evening, as counting went on, parts of Batticaloa town experienced a power failure. Many who voted wished it was the darkness before the dawn, and not a bad premonition of what lay ahead

Soruce : The Morning Leader,Sri Lanka