Sri Lanka It's Happening

November 7, 2005

On December 27th, my aunt's kitchen sink was lying in her front garden. Nothing else that was in the kitchen was found. The sink has been refitted, in a different kitchen.

Why a different kitchen? the goverment wouldn't allow the old house to be rebuild. Despite strong opposition from the people effected, NGOs, and the UNP, the government has still not scrapped the 100 Meter land grab zone. Apparently they have revised it to be a 35 meter zone but no one knows for sure.

To make matters worse nearly an year after the tsunami, they have not yet completed the survey of this so called buffer zone. The UNP candidate for the presidential election, has vowed to scrap this buffer zone the moment he comes to power. You might think he would have a resounding victory in the Tsunami effected southern province but the truth is he may come up second in the south.

Why? Many of the refugees will not be ale to vote. Even under the best of circumstances the party in power always finds a way to stuff ballot boxes, impersonate voters and sometimes uses thuggery to prevent people from voting

The tsunami displaced will probably not get their polling cards because it will be posted to their old addresses which do not exist anymore. Many have lost their ID cards and passports so at the election booth they will not have a way of casting their vote.

The other side of the coin is that thousands who died in the tsunami have not been struck from the voting registers yet. These polling cards are sure to fall into the hands of the goons of the JVP or the PA (party in power). No prizes for guesing what will happen to these polling cards.

Posted by raditha at November 7, 2005 2:35 PM