When analysing the current political discourse, it seems this year’s presidential election is going to be unique in many aspects compared to any other presidential elections held before. I state this not only because the voters affiliated with the two main political streams in the country are paying close attention to the respective candidates fielded by all parties, but also as the non-partisan voter base, which is not currently affiliated with any major political camp and seems to be paying more interest this time. This is why the presidential election this time has become an election where two main slogans should be highlighted simultaneously. Why I mentioned two slogans is because one should be prepared to focus on party-affiliated voters while the other should focus on non-partisans. It is a fact we all know that votes of the voter banks affiliated to different political parties are already divided among the mainstream parties. In other words, political activists on the ground level would know exactly how many votes will be cast for the United National Party (UNP) and how many for the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) against that. As a result, in the past, we had the ability to say who would be the winner, even at the time of starting the polls. In short, in previous elections, the majority of voters were affiliated with some political party in the mainstream. However, that scenario has changed since the 2015 presidential election. Now, the number of non-partisans is almost the same as the number of party affiliates. Therefore, it is important to deliver two direct messages within one slogan in this year’s presidential run. Strategising It is due to this new political tendency that many people who belong to the non-partisan category are forming various types of professional organisations. The “Viyathmaga” professional forum, which held its third annual congregation in Colombo last week, was initially formed as a mechanism to look beyond the traditional political model in seeking solutions for the issues in the country. The kind of leader the country is demanding in this presidential election is still in contention. In the next few weeks, each party or individual candidate will present their policy mandates, stating what will be delivered if they emerge victorious at the presidential election. On the other hand, it is during this period that each of these candidates can express something new on their perception about the country. It is evident that the question of whether the priority in the political agenda for this country should be on the economic factor or on any other issue is going to surface in our political discourse during this time. We still remember that the 2015 presidential election discourse was not focused on the developments in the economic sphere. The fact that questioning the massive economic development model launched by the then Mahinda Rajapaksa Government since 2010 became the sole focus of the 2015 election, has to be understood within the Gramsci model. The basis of January 2015 politics Antonio Gramsci was a leader of the Italian Communist Party around 1920. The revolution in Italy, which he and his team launched in 1922, did not succeed like the Lenin Revolution of 1917. Gramsci was sent to prison in Italy by the party of Benito Mussolini, which came into power defeating them. Later, his writings in prison were published as a collection under the topic “Prison Notes”. In his writings, he argued that in a traditional Marxist sense, the behaviour of a society is determined by economic factors, but that is not always the case. According to Gramsci, it is significant that in some societies, political change is based not on economic factors, but cultural and political factors. That is why I mentioned that the fact that there are possibilities that political power will be exerted on the illusions of an invisible world without considering the basic issues such as the economic factors, should be understood within the framework of the Gramichian model. The good governance model, presented in January 2015, is something that no one understands. However, the results of the last presidential election show that the people have agreed to be misled by such empty political rhetoric. My understanding is that the political agenda of the current presidential election should be mainly based on the direction of practical economic development, and not on intangible rhetoric such as good governance. It is because of these practical principles that society has greater attraction towards projects launched by professionals such as “Viyathmaga”. Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s speeches as one of the main candidates in this presidential election indicate that his political direction is intended to focus more on a development-oriented model. National security and economic development could be seen as the most prominent topics in his political agenda. On the other hand, his recent speech in Jaffna showed that the political direction of the present Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who seems to be contesting the next presidential election, appears to be towards the implementation of the next steps of this Government’s attempt to reform the current Constitution. In addition, Sajith Premadasa is also said to be contesting the presidential election. No one can clearly identify what his political direction is as he is issuing different statements on a daily basis. Although his speeches show that his development strategy is to implement welfare projects such as building houses, his administration’s views on economy and security are yet unknown. It is very important to note that in addition to these main candidates, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Leader also declared at Galle Face that he will contest the presidential election and the direction he proposes. The imperative fact here is to understand that each of these major political streams should present their party’s policy agenda while keeping in mind the challenges for which they are going to propose solutions with their interventions. On the other hand, every strata of society is proposing that the next political shift in this country must bring about dynamic and real social and economic change which transcends imaginary political fantasies. (The writer is a senior lecturer of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Peradeniya)