By

Somapala Gunadheera

Millions of cut-outs and posters of the President, exhibited all over the island, have become a problem, a nuisance and a headache not only for him but also for many others. In fact, no advantage has accrued to the President from their exhibition. Not even a baby in this country needs the help of a poster to identify him.

Although his opponent might have a better use of them, he has astutely refrained from putting out a poster. He has thus nullified an investment costing crores of rupees made on his adversary, and turned it into to his own advantage.

Everyone knows that it is a violation of the law to exhibit propaganda material during the pendency of an election. In that background a contestant who abuses the atmosphere with his propaganda material, while his opponent remains idle, suffers a damage to his vote base at the very beginning of the contest.

There is no point now in crying over spilt milk. What is important is to minimize the damage caused in the shortest possible time. The power to remove posters lies with the Commissioner of Elections but he does not have the man power to do so; he has to depend on the Police to get the job done. That assignment overloads a Police that is already engrossed with their normal assignments in an election. Besides cutting out the cut-outs would cost the tax-payer millions of avoidable expense. The poster removal operation invariably creates friction with the local busybodies, creating mayhem in the process. That unnecessarily taxes judicial time.

The posters etc. indicate that they have been exhibited by individual and institutional supporters of the President. The best weapon to minimize the unexpected loss of votes suffered by their favourite and the damage done to the law and the environment, lies in the hands of the misguided supporters themselves. Although a centralized operation to remove a mountain of propaganda would be a massive undertaking, individual propagandists can remove their respective pieces in no time.

That way, the mountain may be reduced to less than a molehill in one night. By such removal the supporters would save their Saviour’s votes on one hand and on the other, relieve the Elections and Police Departments from avoidable pressure at a time of national importance, when they are fully absorbed with their onerous duties. May the decision-makers be given the wisdom and the strength to instruct their cohorts accordingly, if only to save their own primary interest!

Courtesy:The Island