Second count fever spreads
By Jayashika Padmasiri
Twenty two candidates have entered the fray for the upcoming presidential poll and excepting for General(rtd) Sarath Fonseka and the President the rest of the candidates it is understood want to ‘break’ the votes and force a second count; we spoke to some such candidates to obtain their views on the matter.
Dr.Vikramabahu Karunaratne who is contesting as the leader of the Left Front is one of the main contenders who has publicly said that his main intention for contesting in the 2010 presidential poll is to force a second count. We asked him what a second count meant:
Eliminates
“In a situation where no candidate has received more than one half (50%) of the valid votes cast at the election, the commissioner exercises his powers and eliminates all candidates who have received the lowest number of votes from the contest, leaving the two candidates who have obtained the most number of votes.
After this the second preference, which has been cast in favour of the two remaining candidates is counted, of which, the first vote has been cast for an eliminated candidate,” he said.
Speaking further Dr.Karunaratne added, “If this doesn’t give a candidate the majority votes needed, then a third preference is counted of which the second preference of a voter has also been cast in favour of a candidate. However, if this also fails , the Elections Commissioner tosses a coin and chooses the President of the country, but that seldom happens.”
We asked him how relevant the ‘second count’ is to this specific election, and what are the possibilities of a second count taking place ? He said “ The last presidential election was the only time so far where we came close to a second count. There was only a small difference between the votes received by Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa. So we believe that there is a possibility of there being a second count this time around. Actually my motive is to force a second count “.
Though there are candidates who share such sentiments, there are others who have different views over the ‘second count’. The Leader of the United Socialist Party (USP) Siritunga Jayasuriya expressed totally opposing sentiments to that of Vickremabahu. When we
contacted Jayasuriya, he said that his intention to contest the election had nothing to do with forcing a second count, but he wanted to be president.
“It is just one contender whose sole intention is to force a second count . However, I am of course contesting with the intention of winning. Our party has decided that if we use the second preferential vote, it will not be used for either of the two candidates who are ‘acting’ as if they are the two main candidates. We have agreed and decided that we will not vote for any capitalist candidates. However, we hope to win this election without any kadeyam (support) for anyone or without helping to force a second count,” Jayasuriya said.
No relevance
Meanwhile, another presidential candidate, the leader of the Samajawadi Samanatha Pakshaya (SSP) Wijaya Dias, said his party is not concerned about the second count at all. ‘It has no relevance to us”. When asked whether there is any possibility of there being a second count at the presidential polls, Wijaya Dias said, “We are not concerned about a second count. What is more we feel that all the rest of the contenders are contesting in order to further a capitalist system of government . I cannot however say whether a second a count will take place this time or not. It depends. I’m not a fortuneteller, and I do not know what will happen. So I cannot comment on that.”
Speaking further he said that those contenders who were only contesting in order to force a second count were doing it for personal benefit so that whoever comes to power would be partial towards them and they would benefit by the venture. However, though Dias is convinced that any candidate working towards a second count is only thinking of his personal profits, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP and Independent Presidential Candidate M.K Sivajilingam voiced a different view altogether.
Force second count
He said, “My main intention in contesting for the polls is to force a second count. Left Front Leader Vikramabahu Karunaratne and I are campaigning with this in mind. We want to defeat the first round by making it impossible for the main candidates to get more than 50% votes. And by doing so, we want to show the power that minorities have and more important also to indicate that ultimately a president is elected only through the votes of the minority.
Our intention is to express our view that Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism cannot win this election alone, without the support of the minorities.”
Speaking further Sivajilingam answering a query about the possibility of a second count in the upcoming poll, said he was optimistic that a second count would take place in this instance because in the last presidential poll it almost occured.
“There is a certainty that a second count could take place this time around.
However, “it is not a matter of who would wins this election, but going for a second count no matter who wins in the end,” he added.
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