Sri Lanka presidential election: buses carrying Muslim voters attacked
This article is more than 4 years old
Police say convoy of more than 100 vehicles was shot at but no casualties reported
Buses transporting Muslims to cast their ballots in Sri Lanka’s presidential election have been attacked by gunfire, fuelling fears that minorities are being targeted to stop them from voting.
Police officials confirmed that the buses, which were carrying hundreds of Muslim residents from the north-west town of Puttalam, were hit on Saturday morning when attackers burned tyres on the road and set up makeshift roadblocks to ambush the convoy of more than 100 vehicles.
“The gunmen opened fire and also pelted stones,” said an official in Tantirimale, 150 miles (240km) north of the capital, Colombo. “At least two buses were hit, but we have no reports of casualties.”
The Muslim group were travelling to the neighbouring district of Mannar, where they were registered to vote. There were also reports of a heavy military presence and unauthorised roadblocks in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, which is home to the majority of the country’s Tamil population.
Sri Lanka’s presidential election is taking place just seven months after the Easter Sunday attacks by self-radicalised Islamist extremists who carried out multiple bombings, killing 269 people in attacks on churches and hotels. In the aftermath, there has been a surge of attacks, cases of harassment and boycotts on Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, who make up 9% of the population.
There are a record 35 candidates running in the election but the race is between Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the brother of the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, running for the Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalist SLPP party, and Sajith Premadasa, a minister in the current United National party (UNP) government.
The presidential contest is predicted to be extremely tight and the minority Tamil and Muslim groups are seen as crucial to swinging the vote.
The Muslim community has expressed particular concern about the potential election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who has run on a strident security agenda and has the backing of nationalist Buddhist groups responsible for stoking anti-Muslim sentiment and violence in recent years. As a result, it is predicted that Muslims will mainly throw their votes behind Sajith Premadasa and the UNP.
Many in the Tamil community are equally resistant to the return of Gotabaya Rajapaksa to power. As his brother’s defence minister, he oversaw the brutal and bloody conclusion to the Sri Lankan civil war, where tens of thousands of Tamils died, and his military death squads were responsible for thousands of “disappearances” of Tamils and critics of the state.
Ratnajeevan Hoole, an election commissioner, said the authorities had ignored his pleas to provide adequate protection to internally displaced Muslims going to vote in the multi-ethnic north-west.
“They [Muslims] asked for polling booths in the areas where they are living without having to travel a long distance to their original village to vote,” Hoole said in a statement. “They were sure that a disturbance like this would happen.”
Police reinforcements rushed to the troubled area, cleared road obstructions and escorted the convoy so passengers could cast their ballots.
There were also reports that police and military troops were locked in a tense standoff in Jaffna, with residents complaining of military roadblocks. With the Tamil vote expected to favour the UNP, a reduced voter turnout could favour Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
As a former defence secretary and de facto head of the army, Gotabaya Rajapaksa still has extremely close ties to the military.
Police reported to the independent election commission that the army in Jaffna was illegally manning roadblocks that could discourage residents from travelling to polling booths.
“After bringing to the notice of the army that the roadblocks were illegal at a time of a national election, they have dismantled them,” police said in a statement.
Police sources said they had also warned local military commanders that any disruption to the election would be reported to courts and offenders would be prosecuted.