Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya is a Robot.

A Robot is a machine with many parts, which is programmed  to carry out  complex tasks.  A mechanical Robot is  programmed. It works only according to its programme. If it were to be asked to rectify any error the Robot cannot do  it,  as it is not programmed to rectify  errors.

Commissioner of elections Mahinda Deshapriya is a programmed mechanical Robot. The  whole Department of the Election Commission is a part of this  vast programmed robot.

The  programme is there and nothing can stop the Robot from follows its course according to its programme. It is like a steamroller if your foot gets caught in front of it you will get crushed under it.  The Mahinda Deshapriya Robot is the same.  

There are no human beings in the Mahinda Deshapriya Robot who can detect human errors and correct them. Because it is not programmed for  such corrective measures.

The Local Government election was anticipated with great hope. The  Provincial Councils  which had no elected representatives  for two years since the election of UNP-SLFP Government may finally  have the elections in February, 2018.

Sirisena-Ranil Yahapalanaya had shelved known democratic processes replacing them  with  their own system of democracy to invent reasons for delaying elections. It even introduced bills in Parliament to circumvent judicial decisions that interdicted the governments  from delaying Local Government elections.

Yet this long awaited  local government elections after all this  long strenuous  demands, the elections for the Provincial Councils  have been made  difficult by the mockery of a Election Commission turned  into being a programmed Robot. A Robot which cannot accept human errors and rectify them.

The Robot had been very severe with the SLPodujana Peramuna which had the largest number of nomination lists of candidates rejected. The absurdity of this robots rejection programme can be seen  by taking one rejected Nomination list of the SLPP.

It was rejected for not having the required per centage of women candidates.

How did this happen ?

On the Nomination list the sex of the candidate is apparently shown with  F  before the name, for a female, or M for a male. But in this column of Fs and Ms. one name of a woman candidate had been marked  in the column with an M instead of F. The Robot is programmed to read only the Column of Fs and Ms and therefore found the percentage of women in the Nomination list short of the required per centage. The Robot not programmed to  read names was unable to detect the human error, therefore it rejected the Nomination list.

Is that not an absurdity of the Mahinda Deshapriya Robot which is programmed to read only columns and not names ?

There is a Biblical saying  which was later taken by legal luminaries in interpreting the law, which was to adopt the spirit of the  law and not the letter of it.

However, another factor which the  Robot is not programmed to understand  is that one makes more mistakes when one has more work to do, than when one has less work to do.

It is said that SLPP which had more nomination lists rejected had received 67 000 requests  seeking nomination for the  Provincial Council Elections.  If one has a human mind one can understand why there were more errors in the nomination lists of SLPP .  SLPP cannot accommodate all those who had asked for nominations and they had to do make extremely difficult choices.

There had certainly been much pressure, and errors inevitable. If the parties presenting the Nomination Papers had met  human beings and not Robots to present the Nomination lists  they could have examined the lists together to see if there were errors, and how serious they were and correct some,  and  reject others  which were to serious errors to be accepted under any circumstances,  the situation would certainly have been different.

But this is the fault of having Robots to work with !!!

Those Political parties which had less number of rejects certainly had less number of requests for nominations to deal with and had been able to keep within the Robot’s programme. 

The conclusion is that the  election Department should be manned by human beings and not Robots.

We see the absurdity of turning the Elections Department into a Robot, which made meaningless  the Provincial Council elections which the people and their representatives , won after a fight against a monstrous undemocratic, unpatriotic Yahapalanaya, which had denied  the people the right to have their representatives elected to the Provincial Council for two years.

The long expected Provincial Council elections became a sad experience by the Election Department Robot rejecting the nomination list of the Political parties for minor  human errors. Mahinda Deshapriya Robot had failed to understand that those candidates on the rejected Nomination lists have to wait, one does not know for how long  before there would be an election again for Provincial Councils.

We expect at least the Judges be human,  more than being just legal representatives,  making legal terms meaningful  and people friendly, than the chaotic  Robotic interpretation of the Election law by the Elections Department.

Mahinda Deshapriya takes himself too seriously, and becomes a law unto himself.  In January 2015 presidential elections Mahinda Deshapriya the Commissioner of Elections had ordered the police to “ shoot in the head” to kill any one trying to disrupt elections.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/48395-nine-die-as-ltte-suicide-bomber-attacks-army-base

But he has forgotten that a Commissioner  of Elections is there to see that the Elections are held properly to let the people exercise their vote. The Commissioner of Election  is there to  allow people to seek nominations and help the Political Parties to prepare the nomination lists correctly and facilitate their acceptance without  being unbending in the application of the Election Laws.

After all the elections are of the people, by the people, and  for the people.