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The Sri Lankans will elect their new president on November 16th. One favorite stands out: Gotabaya Rajapakse, the brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaske. This man is however controversial and his clan, in power for 10 years, remains very influential. In this context, the Election Commission, which is supposed to be independent, is accused of trying to favor this candidate of the Rajapakse clan.
With our special correspondent in Colombo, Sébastien Farcis
On Saturday, the chairman of the elections committee made a controversial decision: he banned the public channel ITN from broadcasting any political program or talk during the campaign without the prior approval of the commission.
This amounts to preventing any live coverage and severely restricting the freedom of information of this channel. It's new and seems oriented. Because this decision comes after the diffusion of a critical interview towards Gotabaya Rajapakse. Interview, which, justifies the chairman of the commission, could harm the campaign of this candidate.
The other political parties, as well as independent election observers protest against this directive, which would be more illegal: it was not approved by the other two members of the commission.
In the evening of Sunday, the president comes back on this decision. But there is now doubt about the independence of this election commission and the influence of the powerful Rajapakse clan on this democratic process.
Gotabaya Rajapakse was Defense Minister at the end of the war against the Tamil Tigers and for 6 years after he was accused of murdering human rights activists and journalists opposed to him .