My Voting card in Sinhala and Tamil only
I am registered currently for voting purposes in my farm in Godagama, which is in the Homagama electorate of the Colombo District. I had a list of 41 parties including independent groups with potentially 46 persons vying for preferences for each party.The ballot paper was about 2 ft long to accommodate all these parties, firstly the party sign on the left hand side box, and then the name of the party, in Sinhala, then in Tamil followed by English. In a small section in the bottom, a box of approximately 8cm X 6cm were the 46 boxes with numbers to cross for three candidates for the party one voted for in the top.
The irony was that most people know what party symbol they would vote for, but which of three numbers to cross is much more difficult. Peoples attention span for remembering numbers is not good, and though one may remember one number of a particular candidate, recalling three is a wholly different matter.
I was particularly shocked when my father who had voted in the Colombo West electorate and came up to the farm in the morning told me, that as far as the numbers were concerned he had no clue who he voted for, just crossing three consecutive numbers in boxes, as he did not know names or numbers of candidates.
If that is the comment of a supposedly experienced voter of numerous elections, then I can only conclude that this system is considerably flawed, as all the electioneering was to get people to remember names and numbers, and not party platforms, and even that was poorly executed.
The scale of the waste of money thus expended on an election, which for all intents and purposes is merely a referendum, is unpardonable in light of the current events. Effectively to me it is nothing more than a jobs list for the second tier of boys, who get a duty free vehicle, for all 104 provincial councilors elected. Not one word of utterance was made on how the Rs50B allocation for the Western Provincial Council will be spent. No surprise therefore that voter turnout was under 60%
I found one troubling point which I would like one of my readers to explain. My ballot paper was torn from the perforation and given to me, and my voter number was entered on the counterfoil.Now the counterfoil and the ballot paper have a unique number much like in a cheque book where the counterfoil and cheque have the same number. It is therefore possible, and if computerized, very easy to match who voted for which candidates and party, nullifying the whole point of a secret ballot.
I would like some clarification on this, as to why the lady handing me the ballot paper wrote my voting card number on the counterfoil in pencil!
