Author: Rezwan

Journalists For Democracy In Sri Lanka blog informs that “the office of the ‘Lanka e news’, a prominent news website operating from Sri Lanka, has been sealed off by the authorities. [..] Two days before the elections, another regular contributor to the website, Prageeth Eknalogoda, went missing.”

Owais Mughal at All Things Pakistan discusses about the depleting water resources of Pakistan and urges the decision makers to “invest in Pakistan’s Water Resources for the stability of the country and the region.”

Nilanjana at Akhond of Swat attended the Jaipur Literature Festival and wrote a series of articles on the festival.

“The short window for freedom of expression is now closed. It is unclear when and to what extent it will open again. #srilanka #lka” reads one Tweet by the Sri Lankan citizen media site Groundviews. Follow the Twitter account of Groundviews for more latest info.

In a recent survey three quarters of Pakistani youth viewed themselves as Muslims first, Pakistani second. Raza Rumi talks about the identity crisis of the Pakistani younger generation, which deviates from the views of the founding father of the nation.

Pakistani blogger Raza Rumi attended the SAARC folklore festival held in Chandigarh, India and commented: “It will take years, perhaps decades, but the dream for a visa-less, peacefully coexistent countries of South Asia will be realized. We will wait, but not give up.”

Lanka Libertarian will start to update the district-wise results of today's Sri Lankan presidential election as soon as they are gradually published. The Sri Lankan election department website will update the official results.

Shakir Lakhani at Chowrangi blog asks “Will Pakistan and India always be rivals?”

Indrajit Samarajiva at Indi.ca comments that with the presence of election monitors and somewhat independent election commission, rigging elections in Sri Lanka is tough. However: “the main method of influencing elections is intimidation, and that’s what’s going on.” Read his reports on explosions in Jaffna and irregularities in Batticaloa.

Journalists For Democracy In Sri Lanka blog informs that a political reporter and cartoonist is missing in Colombo on the eve of the presidential elections. Prageeth Ekneliyagoda has disappeared yesterday night (24th of January).

Bangladeshi blogger Muhammad Shihab Jahir at Bioscop reviews Mostafa Sarwar Farooki's critically acclaimed Bangla film 3rd Person Singular Number.

In less than 24 hours Sri Lankan voters will start to vote to decide who will be their 6^th president. The intense campaign of the candidates on the roads have also pumped the adrenaline of the netizens as many are rallying behind their choice of candidates and providing useful information to the voters as well as taking up the task of online election reporting.

Sanjana Hattotuwa of ICT For Peacebuilding (ICT4Piece) has recently delivered a lecture at the Sri Lanka College of Journalism on the use of social media in election reporting. He discussed how social media tools like Flickr, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Wikipedia etc. are being used or can be used for the election campaigns.

He then discussed the use of social media in election monitoring. Examples included ‘The Centre For Monitoring Election Violence‘ site, which publishes daily monitoring report and updates location based mapping of the incidents using Google Maps.

Indrajit goes on to show how Facebook and twitter are also used for election monitoring.

Nibras Bawa at Groundviews analyzed the online election campaigns of the candidates:

Mahinda’s online campaign has the technology, not the vision, not because they don’t understand computers, but because they don’t understand how to make technology harness the passion of their supporters. His campaign team is everywhere online, but they don’t mobilize voters and organize communities. They don’t build a consensual database of mobile numbers by promising that in return, supporters would get campaign news before the media.

I am yet to see Fonseka’s online strategy. He shouldn’t confine himself to an amateur website and a few Facebook Ads. It shows one’s capacity or the lack of it.

While there are allegations that Sri Lanka’s Election Commission failed to promote a campaign on voting, some citizen media sites like Lanka Rising are providing valuable information on ‘how to vote':

There is always an element of doubt in the mind of some people in casting vote in elections in Sri Lanka because different elections use subtle variations of use of preferential voting system. However, if you know the simple rules of voting in presidential election together with using commonsense will make your voting a very simple task. (Read the rest here).

Indrajit Samarajiva at Indi.ca also posts some useful information regarding voting:

NOTE THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO HAVE THE POLLING CARD TO VOTE IF YOUR NAME IS IN THE REGISTRATION LIST. Make sure that you carry with you your NIC or any other recognized picture ID with you when you go to vote.

Ranjith Wijewardene at Lanka Page depicts a specimen of a ballot paper.

Beyond Borders asserts why every Sri Lankan voter should vote:

Because you should, because you have a responsibility, and if you don’t, then please spare us your arm chair politics. If you don’t think your voice should count, then you might as well be silent.

Other information available online include Transparency International's special report on election expenditure, survey predictions etc.

Meanwhile the Twittersphere is catching up with the election madness, however, the use of specific hashtags was not seen:

sukub: Srilanka- Since November 23, a total of 897 incidents of election related violence has been reported.

VoteglobalSouthAsia: Sri Lanka opposition warns of election coup (AFP)http://bit.ly/8dpND0 #SriLanka

slelections: RT #srilanka campaign laws banning ads on final days & cutouts etc is silly and unenforceable. #slelection… http://bit.ly/6SC3zX

ChandruPandian: Looks like Rajapaksa is walking a lonely path…the rest of the world seems to be turning against him #srilanka #lka #win

Both of the major candidates, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseka held their last rallies. Whether to put the verdict on “presidential promises, or for a change” – it seems that the voters are at crossroads.

But nevertheless Sri Lankans like Cerno share this optimism:

Whoever wins we’ll move on to something better.

There was a time in Indian subcontinent when the Dak Harkaras (Post runners) ran 8-10 miles in each direction and back to carry letters and news. Maddy looks back at the golden age of the only type of postal service available in those days.

Spring Of Autumn reports that the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan will not show any match of Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket because they felt that Pakistani players were deliberately excluded from the tournament.