They fall into the following categories and the numbers are approximate to a level of accuracy + or minus 20% due to inaccurate data available.
Approximately 500,000 Sri Lanka Passport
Holders who live overseas DO NOT have their details in a Sri Lankan electoral
register for whatever reason.
1,000,000 Sri Lanka Passport Holders who
mainly work overseas, primarily in the Middle East, are registered to vote in
their household in Sri Lanka as they have been entered by the Primary
Householder on the register, with their ID number. (they will not vote as they
reside abroad, and we currently don’t have a system to allow them a franchise
in Sri Lanka.)
500,000 citizens who live in Sri Lanka
are NOT registered anywhere, as they have not been included in their original
household, by the householder, and they have been unable to register in their
present home, some in rented accommodation, because it is impossible to get
registered for the first time, without confirmation from the GN (grama
niladari, of where they were previously registered,) that they are NO longer
registered in that address!)
The balance 1,500,000 live away from
their registered address, of which 500,000 have a postal vote as they have
eligibility due to being Govt. servants on duty, and forces personnel. Of the
remaining 1,000,000: 400,000 private sector workers go home at weekends to be
with their families, and are most likely to go to their homes on Thursday 8th
January to vote, taking a few more days off, subject to their employers
permission as many in this category are domestic workers, drivers, security
personnel in private homes and companies.
This leaves 600,000 people WHO cannot
for economic reasons go home to vote!!!!
They include domestic help. Security
staff who are on duty on election day, unable to go home to vote, garment and
industrial workers who are boarded who despite in some cases getting a paid
holiday to vote, are unable to spend the Rs1000+ to travel, some of whom who
may take one day to go home and another to return, and therefore choose even to
take it as a rest day, and catch up on much needed sleep.
Don’t forget Sunday the 4th of
January is a Poya Holiday as well as Sunday, Monday is a Bank Holiday, due to
Poya falling on Sunday, so if Thursday and Friday are also days when staff are
not working in the private sector, firms will be reluctant to be generous to
their staff for time off for voting!!! This is a very practical issue.
The special exercise of sampling their
intentions, that was undertaken regarding this which I was informed of this morning,
is that 75% of this 600,000 would vote for Maithripala Sirisena, meaning a net
300,000 vote loss to him as a result. The MS camp DO NOT have a plan to
transport them to their home areas to vote, so you the reader come to your own
conclusion about this population of eligible voters.
I hope this analysis gives the reader an
indication of the effective lack of franchise, and points to the need to extend
postal voting for a whole new category of private sector worker in Sri Lanka. I
have previously in a blog entry discussed the issue of a vote for those who
reside overseas, and will not include that issue here.
I welcome your comments, on how to tackle
this problem, as I have already spoken to some contacts in the BOI zones of
Biyagama and Katunayake who employ considerable number of workers from distant
parts who are boarded near their work who WOULD NOT go home to vote as they
cannot afford the expense! Even though their employers have agreed to give a
paid day off. I have made this point to the employers that their staff vote
will make a difference, but they are unwilling to subsidize the transport cost
for that exercise.
Another startling fact that comes out of
this is that the 1.6M eligible voters who WILL NOT make the trip home amounts
to 12% of the registered voters. Their opinions can make a difference to the
result in a Presidential Election.
It is therefore the duty of the
legislators of Sri Lanka to enable as many citizens of Sri Lanka to exercise
the Universal Franchise, and let us press our legislators that is their duty to
do so at a future date.
Just like the technology has now
eliminated the duplicate registering of voters as they are registered with a
unique identity number, we can also enable one person one vote, no matter where
they reside, and at least for all adults living in Sri Lanka no matter where
they live. The marking of one’s finger when voting is sufficient to prevent a
person voting more than once, and so let all vote at a Presidential, no matter
where they are, just go to any polling station and show your ID and vote!!!
How about it? Opinions and comments are
most welcome on this subject.
6 comments:
Let this be a wakeup call to policy makers that the MOST PRODUCTIVE workers of Sri Lanka are basically unable to vote and make a difference!
A hard working garment worker does not want to spend Rs2000 to go to her home village to vote. She would rather spend the day, resting her weary hands, so that she can be more productive when she returns to the factory, where she gets an incentive for the piece work productivity.
A dedicated nanny in Colombo 7, will stay with her charges so her industrialist boss, can think of more productive ways to increase his wealth, not worrying personally, about the welfare of his children or spending the day changing their nappies.
A hardworking hotel worker, who in the height of the tourist season, will not leave his workplace to go to vote, and instead opts to get OT and takes care of the guests at the hotel he works and shares the service charge with his co-workers.
A security guard in a Colombo District factory, will not go to his home in Polonnaruwa to vote, because he too gets overtime, and is willing to safeguard the considerable valuable productive assets of his employer from loss, be it theft, fire or an electrical fault, thereby saving productive assets for his mother country.
A fisherman who is now on the west coast to fish, as his home is in the east coast, and they move from coast to coast depending on the monsoon of each area, who does not want to miss a lucrative catch.
A driver for a private bus operator, will stay on out of loyalty to his boss, and out of the knowledge that he would forego about Rs5000 in income if he has to trek back home to vote.
This is a cross section of the 600,000 workers you refer to, who MUST be given the postal vote also. They know the value of money, and work for it, unlike the unproductive Govt. servants and forces personnel who do have the postal vote just because they man a wholly unnecessary military camp, whiling away their time, hassling the young girls in the area when they pass by with cat calls and crude comments, which these girls would not dare to say a word against.
If Sri Lanka fails them, then who they elect is a worthless fool, voted in by lazy ungrateful lotus eaters!
JUST THINK ABOUT IT!
Politics is a rich mans game
This is a crying shame on SL. Opposition should have made an issue out of this in the election.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/150104/news/postal-voting-must-for-staff-says-premier-hospital-director-129643.html
http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-81571-news-detail-no-leave-to-vote-over-200000-plantation-youth-affected.html
I just had a call from a highly agitated student at the Sri Jayawardenaura Campus who said ALL their end of term exams are on the 12th and that none of the 5,000 or so students would be able to go home to vote, due to the time it would take to go home and return, and also be prepared for the exams and that to his knowledge if exams are NOT postponed that would affect their fundamental rights.
He wanted us to intervene and get the exams postponed by appealing to the Elections Commissioner. I said when there are hundreds and thousands in your shoes he is hardly likely to make a special case out to you.
Of course appealing to a Presidential appointee VC Amerasinghe may not help!
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