![]() The piece of information of course was interesting, but what intrigued me more was the nuances of this game of politics and what a strong factor nepotism is. This was how Sunethra Bandaranaike confirmed the rumour about the last time her mother cast a vote, which turned out to be her last political act. “Don’t interpret it like that,” Sunethra said, and explained, “That’s the love a mother has for her son”. I then said “There you go, that’s why I said your mother voted for the UNP”.Īccording to the voting system, one has to first vote for the party and then mark one’s preference for a candidate. The polling booth official asked her which Bandaranaike she wanted to vote for. Fortunately there was another Bandaranaike on the SLFP list. Luckily only the lady officer, the polling booth official and I were there. ![]() The lady official asked her whom she would wish to vote for in order to tick the relevant box. Once we entered the polling booth, the lady official assisted her to cast her vote. “No, no Uvindu I was there and it was I who took her in the wheel chair to cast her vote. Then she related what had happened on the 10th of October, 2000, the date of the General Election. “Ok, ok, ok…calm down… she anyway died after voting for the UNP noh?” I asked. “Show some respect and call her Sirimavo or Mrs. ![]() I added, “Even Sirima voted for the UNP and died the same day!” I was repeating a rumour I had heard four years before that. That would be Anura and Chandrika.Īt this point I asked her why the three of them were so eager to wake up early to vote for Ranil Wickremesinghe. She asked me what I was going to do the following day and said “I am going to bed now, I have to wake up early and go vote with my brother and sister”. So I went to her residence and we considered different scenarios and made relevant forecasts. It was in the midst of these calculations that Sunethra Bandaranaike called me. ![]() On the evening of the day before the election, the editor of Ravaya, Victor Ivan, and I were considering possible outcomes based on our assessment of the numbers that the two main candidates, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa, were likely to poll in different provinces and districts. I was at the time working for the Ravaya newspaper. What I am about to relate took place over two days, the first being the day before the 2005 Presidential Election and the second being election day itself. That assessment we shall leave to the reader. It is essentially a report of her last political act which can be taken as symptomatic of the overall political culture of the country. ![]() Her achievements and failures, the good and the bad, have been extensively written about and will probably be the subject of political commentary well into the future. As the world’s first female Prime Minister, a woman who served three terms as the Prime Minister of the country, the longest serving leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the wife of a Prime Minister and the mother of an Executive President with credentials as a strong and resourceful leader, her place in the history of post-Independence Sri Lanka is well-established. Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike was born on the 17th of April, 1916, exactly 100 years ago. ![]()
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