Facing The Future After Elections 2020'

The general elections of 2020, conducted in the midst of the ongoing crisis of COVID-19 and a global economic recession imminent, marks yet another turning point in our political history. Two issues undergirded the campaign; nation-building ideological platforms and economic considerations in the name of progress, development and welfare of the people. It is a bare eleven years after the war and just a year after the calamitous Easter Sunday Bombings. The question of who belongs and who does not belong to the nation, the discourse of us and them very much alive, shaping politics.

The SLPP had a resounding victory in the polls, and along with its few allies, some of them newly minted is able to command an overwhelming majority in the parliament and in steering the country’s policies for the next five years. It won on a plank of strong government, development, prosperity and (Political) Buddhism. The election outcome and trends promoted by the current government privileges militarisation, not just the deployment of the military in certain areas, but the militarisation of civilian rule. A 20th amendment to the constitution seems imminent. This will render the gains of the 19th amendment null and void; one of the few achievements of the good governance rule that brought about a reduction of the powers of the Executive President.

Devolution, democracy and nation-making