Sri Lanka: Elections ahead - Media control tightened · Serving Persecuted Christians Worldwide

Sri Lanka | 03 October 2019

With presidential elections scheduled for 16 November 2019, President Sirisena has placed a state-run TV station under the control of the Ministry of Defense, as reported by UCA News on 20 September 2019.‚ Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, explains: "This move comes ahead of what will arguably be the nation"s most decisive election in recent years. Sri Lanka is still coming to terms with the devastating Easter Sunday attacks (on 21 April 2019) by Islamic suicide bombers, which left several dozen of the country"s Christian minority dead. The political background and responsibility for those attacks are still not clear and as a result, President Sirisena has set up a special committee to investigate in more depth (UCA News, 23 September 2019). However, some surviving victims doubt that any real progress will be made due to the run-up to the forthcoming presidential election."‚ Thomas Muller continues: "The deep rifts in the governing coalition can be clearly seen by the fact that it has not yet officially named a presidential candidate, unlike the opposition, which has nominated strongman and former Secretary of Defense, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. During his stint as Secretary of Defense, he was well known for his support for Buddhist nationalists and radical groups, the Christian minority being one of their main targets. As for the current government, it remains to be seen if the coalition will be able to unite behind one candidate by the end of the nomination period on 7 October. At the moment that hardly seems likely."