05 Jul Elections 2020 – Your home research toolkit for voting
So, it’s that time again. The time where we the people get to use our civic right to decide how we would like to be governed, and most importantly “who” gets willy wonka’s golden ticket, to run this wonderful chocolate factory. Many nay Sayers will go on about how we don’t have the cream of the crop to decide from, and are stuck with the same ol’ brood, but vote, you must.
A majority of Sri Lankans are used to voting along party lines rather than based on policy. With the increase in information availability, and access to new media, there is a trend where people look at more information when deciding on who to vote.
We have compiled a list of websites / apps, that we came across which provide information that would help you when it comes to voting.
Elections Commission
Provides official communications related to the election. Most of the information available may not be very important with regards to candidate selection, but is useful when checking your voter registration details, applying for postal voting (for government employees on election duty) and keeping up to date on any election related media releases.
Manthri.lk
Manthri.lk provides and extensive analysis of the performance of past members of parliament and their track record under specific policy areas. Managed and researched by Veritae Research which is a prominent private think tank based in Colombo. The thorough analysis provided will help you understand how exactly each ex-mp has performed. The website has a special tool to compare politicians, while each ex-mp of the 8th parliament has a profile page with comprehensive information including a summary of their performance, personal information and activities referring to parliamentary records.
Even though the information is limited to previous members of parliament, there is a plethora of information which will be useful to understand how each member and their parties have behaved, despite their promises and claims. The website admins have also provided info-graphics on which ex-mp’s are contesting in each district.
Namayojana.lk
Namayojana.lk popped up on social media a few weeks back and is managed by MID-art digital, piliyandala. This website is envisioned as an information hub regarding political candidates and as a platform for the candidates to reach the voters. Currently a comprehensive list of candidates and their preferential numbers from all the major parties is available on the website however, information relating to some small parties and independent teams are not yet available. Each candidate is provided with a page, which even though isn’t complete yet, has provisions to include election manifestos, social media links and other information, that would provide a good platform to gather information and comparison.
My Vote
My vote is an app / website is an online portal focused towards providing citizens with a platform to vote on policy through digital referendums. They claim to be a non-government, non-profit social movement not aligned to any specific political part or organization and is managed by “For Your Information (Pvt.) Ltd.”. Registered users can create and vote on polls which may be used by an AI assistant to match that against policies put forth by political parties and their candidates.
They too have listed out politicians and has provisions to include their performance under different categories (similar to that of Manthri.lk) but is incomplete in most cases. Even though currently it doesn’t seem to have a lot of information specifically geared towards this election, the plethora of polls provide an opportunity to understand the general sentiment and initiate discussion on specific problems. The website is trilingual.
Summary
In addition to this list the department of government information and the plethora of news outlets would also provide relevant information which would be useful.
Unfortunately, though there is a rise in fake news which accounts to a large amount of what is out there, especially circulated through social media. Organized disinformation campaigns and social media manipulation are commonplace now-a-days through which the public opinion is manipulated. Weeding the news from the fake news is a bit of a tricky task especially when the same information is portrayed in a biased manner. Volunteer led organizations like Watch Dog are taking the fight to the dis-informers, but at the end of the day it is your responsibility to not be a potential fake news victim, by being objective and thorough in your research.
Voting is an important part of our political system. Making an informed decision going beyond party lines, the free bath packet, and any ‘tribal feelings’ we have (you know what we are talking about) is very important at this juncture (cliche). The ball is now back on our court.
Please do let us know if there are any other resources available in addition to the ones mentioned in this list.
Now that you are here: Understanding the importance of each policy area is important to us, so that we can initiate the channels for policy generation, prioritising on the most important one’s. Please let us know your thoughts in the poll here.
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