With the Election Commission (EC) announcing that the long-delayed general election will finally take place on Wednesday, 5 August, the battle cries that were being raised against the Commission have finally abated. The outspoken Head of the Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya, took great pains to explain why the election had to be postponed and the many new measures that will be in place for the first time at the August poll. Today marks the beginning of the 50-day countdown to what will be a defining election in Sri Lanka’s post- independence history. It will be defining in the sense that it will be the first election in 72 years where the two main parties that have dominated the post-independence political landscape will be relegated to bystander status. The forthcoming election will herald the unveiling of a new political order that could potentially be dominated by the two offspring of the main parties – namely, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) offspring the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the United National Party (UNP) offspring the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) – with the two parent parties consigned to the shadows. Ironically, the architects of the downfall of both the UNP and the SLFP have been their respective leaders, who today are not only the biggest liabilities of these two parties, but who also stubbornly refuse to accept or acknowledge the fact. The manner in which UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has presided over the disintegration of what was once a grand political edifice and Maithripala Sirisena’s leadership of the crumbling SLFP are eerily similar, but what took the cake in the form of the mother of all political disasters was when these two individuals were put together in the Yahapalana experiment. The less said of that the better. Nonetheless, the question will always be asked whether it was these leaders who failed their parties they represent or whether it was the parties that failed their leaders. Today, both Wickremesinghe and Sirisena remain steadfast in their refusal to accept ownership for the chaos they have collectively caused their respective parties – and by extension the country – owing to nothing else but individual as well as collective incompetence. It has been said over the years that Wickremesinghe was never thought of as leadership material and was only thrust into that position by default, owing to the assassinations of party stalwarts Lalith Athulathmudali and former President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993, followed by the assassination of UNP presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake in 1994. Twenty-six years later, his dismal record of leadership speaks for itself and has proven the critics right. Wickremesinghe now has a date with destiny when Ranasinghe Premadasa’s son becomes his political nemesis over and above the others in the fray on 5 August. If Premadasa’s upstart SJB polls more votes than the UNP, then for all intents and purposes Wickremesinghe’s goose is cooked. If by chance the UNP polls more than the SJB, then Wickremesinghe will be on life support to blunder on for another three years as party Leader when his term comes to an end in 2023. Such a prospect will largely depend on the benevolence of voters towards the grand old party and therefore should not by any measure be construed as a vote of confidence in Wickremesinghe’s leadership abilities which have been equally disastrous, both in opposition as well as in government. He is probably the only elected leader who has failed to complete a full term every time he was given the opportunity, which has been few and far between – in 2001 and 2015. No doubt, Wickremesinghe has been easy prey for opposition parties given his inherent reluctance to put up a fight. Sirisena for his part is a different kettle of fish, although his failures are as monumental as Wickremesinghe’s. Sirisena has a lot to answer for over matters of commission and omission during his tenure as the President of the Republic. It is a matter for regret that he is seeking election to Parliament when none of the questions that are crying out for answers have been answered. It would not be wrong to state that the root cause of much of the political and financial issues facing the country today are the singular result of Sirisena’s reckless actions during his stewardship beginning with the controversial and arbitrary arrest of DIG Nalaka Silva who at the time was in hot pursuit of Zahran Hashim, the leader of the radical Muslim extremist group Thowheed Jamath, on yet unproven charges of an assassination conspiracy. With the Police effectively off his back following the DIG’s arrest, Hashim was provided the space to put together his team of suicide cadres that wrecked the country on Easter Sunday, the repercussions of which are still being felt. In October 2018, Sirisena arbitrarily dismissed Wickremesinghe’s Government ostensibly because he simply didn’t like his face. This singular action caused markets to tumble and investors to flee with the country’s Parliament being reduced to a violent circus. Although subsequently a no lesser entity than the Supreme Court declared Sirisena’s action illegal, neither Wickremesinghe nor his Government thought it fit to call for Sirisena’s resignation. Barely six months later when the Easter tragedy took place, Sirisena, who had taken under him the entire defence establishment including the Police, was away in Singapore on a private visit. Going by the revelations being made at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which is currently inquiring into the matter, the defence establishment was aware of the impending attacks. But all that Sirisena has said so far is that he knew nothing of it. If that indeed was the case, it is a serious indictment on his level of competence in the job. Given that it is these same failed actors who are trying to make a comeback to Parliament in probably the most crucial period of the country’s history, it is time for the people to decide on their own destiny. In the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka has an unprecedented fight on its hands purely for economic survival. This extraordinary situation calls for extraordinary leadership from the new Parliament that should ideally be well versed in the matters at hand. Sri Lanka can no longer afford the luxury of having school dropouts and political riff raff in its Parliament, if it is to weather the storm ahead. To put what is at stake in perspective, Sri Lanka risks an unprecedented recession if it does not diligently handle what’s in store in the aftermath of Covid-19. According to World Bank data released last week, the country’s economy will shrink by a whopping 3.2% this year and is expected to stagnate at zero growth in 2021. The last time this happened was in 2001 under Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. The bank has cited various reasons for its forecast such as the combination of falling tourism earnings and muted industrial and manufacturing activity caused by lesser demand from the West coupled with lesser demand for services, which will be impacted further by a significant drop in foreign remittances from workers in the Middle East. All things considered, the conditions are just about right for the perfect storm. That storm is already hitting the man on the street as well as the one sitting in plush corporate offices. It is up to these very same people to now elect the captains who will weather the storm and deliver them safely to the other side.