No
game changer in sight
The
laws and bylaws governing our election (J.R.Js bizarre Mantra or
Kumantrana election) is repugnant.
Only
the first two who puts the head beyond the tape is valid.
The
third at the tape is severed by the tension of the tape.
What
it means is that the race is tight and is not one horse race.
It
is tight and no one will get the required 50% due to their own folly
of putting dummy candidates, preferring them to vote the second
preferential vote.
This
election will be known for delay in declaring of the result.
There
will be violence soon after the election (pent up emotions subdued
before the election will come out like a cork of a bottle of good
wine) and nobody will get over 45% (my original analysis was 40% but
I wish to revise it due to large margin of error).
Ceylonese
voters are known for huge surprises and the voting pattern of the
first voters and the non-committal intelligentsia will determine the
outcome.
So
my advice is for you to buy few extra pints of beer (there are
bottles now for Rs.360/=) and or V.S.O.A and stock them for
consumption and not for resale with hiked prices.
The
hording is already on!
I
do not go for arrack since majority are adulterated and unluckily for
our neighborhood, there is no proper bar but liqueur transported in
polythene bags (one, two or three tots packed in small polythene bags
and then put in a large black polythene bag).
I
of course broke my self abstaining of 9 months (including liqueured
chocolates) briefly for a lemon gin in my favorite bar and diluted
the peg with tonic and a big fish soup and would go back to my
abstaining routine until the election is over.
The
simple reason I drink ONLY spirits not taxes imposed on them and I
want my friends coming from abroad to bring bottles of wine not
arrack without taxes.
Well
my favorite is now iced lemon tea or cinnamon tea but due to poor
quality of tea I am now leaning on coffee.
Now
a brief quotes for the three front runners without naming them.
One’s
understanding of ground level politics is worse than J.L. Pieris and
reads a prompt like a parrot.
The
other is totally obsessed with Podions and simple Simons (if you use
these words now one will get a hit on your head with a Kithul Polla)
and forgets to address the economic and debt traps of this country.
The
third is totally confused in strategy and spoils the soup for the
second by pretending to be the game changer.
None of them is a game changer and poor voter has to bite the dust.
A
piece from one editorial comment below.
By
the time you read next Sunday’s issue of this newspaper, the
presidential election would have been concluded and Sri Lanka’s
seventh executive president declared, and hopefully sworn. That is,
of course, if there is no delay in the counting as neither of the two
principal contenders had one vote more than the magical 50% of the
ballots cast. If that be the case, second and third preferences of
the voters favouring the lead contenders will be counted and added to
their tallies. If either still does not reach 50% plus one, the
candidate polling the majority of votes will be declared the winner.
