Text and Photos by Maheesha Mudugamuwa reporting from the Uva Province The 16 November presidential election will see a tight race between Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa and New Democratic Front (NDF) presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa in the Uva Province. Despite being the second least populated province in the country with a population of 1,266,463 (Department of Census and Statistics Census of Population and Housing 2012), the Uva Province, which borders the Eastern, Southern, and Central Provinces, would play an important role in the upcoming presidential election, as the two main candidates have strong support in the area. Badulla, being the commercial capital of the Province, seems to be more of a United National Party (UNP) stronghold which is therefore favourable for Premadasa while Monaragala is seen as being more favourable towards Rajapaksa. Badulla consists of nine electorates; namely Mahiyanganaya, Wiyaluwa, Passara, Badulla, Hali-Ela, Uva-Paranagama, Welimada, Haputale, and Bandarawela where a total of 657,766 voters reside. In 2015, President Maithripala Sirisena secured the most votes in the Badulla District by a small margin. Sirisena obtained 49.21% of the votes as against 49.15% obtained by the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidate, then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Badulla used to be a solid UNP base and they secured the most votes in the area at almost all the elections until 2010. In 2010, former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka could obtain only 44.55% of the votes against the 53.23% secured by Mahinda Rajapaksa. Meanwhile, Monaragala, which consists of three electorates; namely Bibila, Monaragala, and Wellawaya, has always been a leftist district where the UPFA at the last two elections secured more than 60% of the votes. However, Monaragala has only 366,524 voters compared to that of Badulla; Monaragala has only half of the voter base in Badulla. In 2015, UPFA candidate Rajapaksa won in the Monaragala District, securing 61.45% against 37.45% obtained by NDF candidate Sirisena. In 2010, NDF’s candidate Fonseka could obtain only 29.10% against 69.01% secured by Rajapaksa in Monaragala. The Sunday Morning was able to understand, while travelling through the villages in the Uva Province last week, that there was no drastic change in the sentiments of the supporters of major political parties when compared with the last presidential election. That being said, we also ascertained that the new or young voters in the Province would play a decisive role at the upcoming presidential election. Therefore, the political parties are seen drawing strategies to attract new voters to their camps. Lack of progress While the politicians are busy making new promises to attract new voters, a number of issues faced by the residents in the country’s most poverty-stricken province remained unresolved over the past many years. In Uva, there are residents who still do not own even a perch of land, farmers struggling to sell their harvest, and youths eagerly looking for job opportunities; in some areas, poor residents walk several miles a day in search of drinking water. Last week, The Sunday Morning spoke to Sivamani, a 53-year-old estate worker in Badulla. “We are waiting till the politicians come. Until someone comes to our village and promises us our own land, we will not vote for anyone. Why do we need to vote if they are not looking after our needs. During the last five years, no one came to our village,” she lamented. Sivamani is residing in the Wewessa Estate. Several years ago, she and other workers were absorbed to the village from the estate that they were managing. However, while making the shift, Sivamani and 10 other families were promised their own lands. However, to date, the poor families are still waiting to own a plot of land and proper housing like the other villagers in Badulla. “We can’t sleep when it rains because of the water. No one offered us roofing sheets. During the rainy season, we are wet, day and night,” she cried. “Please help us. We don’t know how to share our grievances with the leaders of this country. Once, we tried to write a letter, but no one helped us to do that either,” she continued. Badulla is more ethnically diverse than the Monaragala District, and though the majority of the population in both districts is Sinhalese, in Badulla, the Indian Tamil population makes up a substantial proportion. They are the second largest ethnic group and make up 18% of the population, as per the Provincial Council Education and Training (VET) Plan 2014-2018 prepared by the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission. The majority of them are in the estate sector. Sivakumar, a 32-year-old resident of the same village as Sivamani, said: “After we were absorbed to the village, we did a survey plan. We paid Rs. 6,000 and did it by ourselves because no one offered us a free service. The majority of the residents in this village are earning daily wages and most of them are working in estates. Now it’s been five years, and we are still waiting for our own lands. “During the last few years, we have seen so many families receiving houses and lands, but the politicians here have forgotten us,” he stressed. Sivakumar is married and has two children. He said he finds it really difficult to run a family with the amount he earns per day. Like the residents in the Wewessa Estate, there are many estate workers whose families have been working for more than 180 years but are not entitled to own even a single perch of land. The “Mahinda Chinthanaya” manifesto promised them seven perches of land each, but so far, this has not been given. In spite of Badulla being a UNP stronghold, during the last few years and even with having several key UNP heavyweights representing the Badulla District in Parliament, those estate workers are still struggling to own their plots of land. While the estate workers are struggling to own their own lands, the youth in Badulla are struggling to find proper employment opportunities within the District. Badulla is an agricultural district where tea, vegetables, and paddy are cultivated. The economy of the District runs based on the agriculture, livestock, and tourism industries. The District borders the Monaragala and Ratnapura Districts to the East and South, respectively, the Ampara and Kandy Districts to the North, and Nuwara Eliya and Matale to its west. It is divided into two 13 areas – the upper region and lower region – according to climatic and geographical characteristics. The upper division of the District is famous for tea plantations and vegetable cultivation while the lower division is well known for paddy cultivation. On the other hand, Monaragala borders the districts of Badulla, Ratnapura, Ampara, and Hambantota and is mainly an agricultural district. Youth, education, and municipal concerns Badulla Municipal Council (BMC) JVP Councillor Nandana Hapugoda told The Sunday Morning that the youth in Uva had already started to migrate to the Western Province, especially Colombo, in search of job opportunities. “This is mainly due to the lack of employment opportunities in the region as there were no major development projects launched in the region,” he stressed. “Why has the Government failed to create more job opportunities in the Province?” he questioned. “There are no proper facilities in the education sector and also very poor management. All the decisions regarding the education sector were earlier taken by the Chief Minister and a number of teachers faced numerous difficulties when they wanted transfers. Teachers had to make requests from the Chief Minister itself, which is totally against the rules and regulations,” Hapugoda claimed. He explained that the reason for the low performances in Uva was the lack of co-ordination between regional and central government institutions. On the other hand, one of the major issues faced by the residents in BMC is the garbage issue. A massive garbage dump is piling up in the centre of Badulla town. However, according to Hapugoda, the Municipal Council failed to address the garbage issue in the area. “This garbage dumping site is also piling up to be another Meethotamulla. But this issue arises from Colombo and, of course, we can understand, due to the lack of land and increased population. “But here in Badulla, this has happened solely due to the ignorance of the authorities. This garbage dump should be relocated or managed. We have enough space for waste management; the Government should be there to make a change,” he stressed. Elaborating on the National People’s Power (NPP) election campaign, the JVP Councillor stressed that there were around 34,000 JVP votes in Badulla and the party was trying to attract more professional and young voters, targeting an increase of its voter base to more than 50,000. He said that they have a better chance in Badulla this year as the people are fed up with the prevailing systems. No visible development was made during the last four-and-a-half years and therefore people were not happy with the present administration. They were also not happy with the Rajapaksa Government, he said. Voter sentiment According to the Department of Census and Statistics, 97.7% of the population in the Monaragala District lives in rural areas while the other 2.3% lives in estates. In the Badulla District, 6.6% of the population lives in urban areas while 72.2% and 20.7%, respectively, live in the rural and estate areas. Poor urbanisation in the Badulla District and absence of any urbanisation in the Monaragala District indicate that industrial establishments in the districts are rare, and the economy is dominated by agriculture and the service sector. When considering the working age population, we gathered that 64% of the total population in Badulla belongs to the working age, whereas in the Monaragala District, it is 57%. On evaluating the data, we gathered that the prospect for growth of the labour force in the future is higher in the Monaragala District while the current demand for employment is seemingly higher in the Badulla District. The level of education seems to be low in the Uva Province. At the last Advanced Level examination, the Uva Province obtained the seventh place islandwide, with only the Eastern and Northern Provinces below it. Meanwhile, speaking to The Sunday Morning, Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) District Co-ordinator R.M. Isurujeeva said the two major parties had been making a number of election promises during the last few months, but the people in Uva knew that the promises would never be fulfilled. According to him, the demand for increases in the daily wages of estate sector workers continues as governments had failed to meet the demand. The estate workers want their daily wages to be increased to Rs. 1,000, he stressed. Meanwhile, the victims of Meeriyabedda were still suffering as the Government failed to provide the necessary facilities for them. It has been five years since the disaster occurred. “Some victims were given houses in landslide-prone areas and some are yet to receive houses,” he stressed. On the other hand, the pepper and potato farmers are in a fix. For pepper farmers, the price of a kilo of pepper had been reduced. Earlier, it was Rs. 1,400 and now it has been reduced to Rs. 500. Meanwhile, the potato farmers find it difficult to sell their harvest as the Government started to import potato from India, he stressed. In the Badulla District, 64.2% of the population are employed in agriculture, while 10.1% and 25.7%, respectively, are employed in the industrial and services sectors. In the Monaragala District, 66.9% are employed in the agricultural sector while 10.1% and 23.0% are employed in the industrial and services sectors, respectively. “These are the major issues faced by the residents which the present Government or the previous Government failed to address,” Isurujeeva stressed. Meanwhile, Lalitha Wijesekera, a 70-year-old preschool teacher in Diyatalawa, said none of the political representations in the area had done any visible development for the area. “This time, they would not be able to deceive the public and I hope that the people would vote wisely. We still believe that if we get a good leader who knows the suffering of the poor, he would be able to serve the country,” she stressed. “There are some politicians who think that they are the president of the country. It is a shame for their fathers who also did well in politics in the region. Most of the time, those sons are coming by helicopters and now, the whole area hates them. Now our citizens are thinking. The residents in these areas are wise and they know the people who work for society and those who don’t,” she said. Highlighting the political campaign launched by NDF candidate Sajith Premadasa, his Badulla District Campaign Co-ordinator Nilu Wijedasa told The Sunday Morning that the NDF had launched a door-to-door campaign in Badulla and they were confident of winning Badulla with a majority 60% votes. The development activities of the Government in the past four-and-a-half years had changed the mentality of the residents and therefore, the residents still believe in the development programmes of the UNP Government, he said. On the other hand, there is massive enthusiasm among the UNPers as well. A number of non-UNPers are also joining hands with Premadasa, he said. “In the Badulla District, Sajith Premadasa has a good chance of securing the majority vote. And our target is more than 60%,” Wijedasa said. Premadasa’s overall election campaign is being conducted by Minister Harin Fernando while Wijedasa has been appointed by Premadasa’s office to manage and support the campaign. Meanwhile, Buttala Pradeshiya Sabha Member Nandasiri Nikawatta told The Sunday Morning that in Buttala in the Monaragala District, the SLPP had good footing and was confident that SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa would secure more than 80% of the votes at the upcoming presidential election. “In Monaragala, the SLPP will win a landslide victory and as of now, the UNP has found it difficult to even put up a banner as they couldn’t find enough supporters. There’s no chance for Sajith Premadasa to win in Monaragala,” he said. As observed by The Sunday Morning, the election will be fought in a climate where the public is has lost trust in politics and politicians. A key point about this election is that the incoming government will have to face a disgruntled peoples in Uva, making their task much harder, irrespective of whether they are SLPP or NDF.

Positive trend for Rajapaksa

UPFA Badulla District MP Thenuka Vidanagama At the upcoming presidential election, we are very confident that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) will get the majority vote in the Uva Province; we see a good trend, especially in Badulla. Even though the UNP won the Badulla District at the last presidential election, there is a positive trend for SLPP’s (presidential candidate) Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Therefore, even in Badulla, the SLPP will get the majority. We have already begun the campaign and a door-to-door campaign was launched on Saturday (26). As of now, the residents are very enthusiastic and everyone keeps hope that Rajapaksa will win the election.

Badulla will go with Premadasa

UNP Badulla District MP Chaminda Wijesiri This time, Sajith Premadasa will definitely get the majority in Uva. As in the past, Badulla will definitely go for Premadasa. In addition, in Badulla, where the majority of estate workers live, we are very confident that Premadasa will solve the longstanding issues these workers have been facing. During the last four-and-a-half years, the Government has done a number of development projects in Badulla and it also fulfilled the promises made to estate sector workers. Therefore, we are very confident that we can win in Badulla and the entire Uva Province this time. In Monaragala also we are doing a good campaign and we see the people have hope in Premadasa. It is mainly the young and floating votes that are with Preamadasa, because they want a young leader for the country and a leader who works for the common man.