The true picture of the country’s badminton set-up came to light in all its fishiness as voters and candidates staged a walk-out in protest at the conduct of an election of office-bearers held yesterday at the sport’s headquarters in Colombo 7.
The walk-out and protest came when top candidate in the fray for the post of president, Prof Ranjith de Silva was treated like a non-entity and not allowed to vote on behalf of the Eastern Province Badminton Association which had authorized him in writing after its secretary was unavailable due to an overseas commitment.
Charging that the election was unfair and biased, voting representatives from the Mercantile Badminton Association, Northern Province BA, Eastern Province BA, Western Province BA, Government Services and Nationalized Services staged the walk-out.
The protesters claimed their votes were all in favour of Prof De Silva who would have ended as the winner for the top post which then went to an uncontested Suraj Dandeniya, a new comer to badminton administration.
L.R. Ariyananda, a candidate for the post of secretary and close aide of Prof De Silva told Ceylon Today in an interview that it was pointless contesting the election as it had been stage-managed to ensure voters not in favour of Dandeniya were eliminated.
He said they were in the process of submitting a petition to the Human Rights Commission, questioning the validity of an election that was not free and fair.
Ariyananda also claimed that the SLBA had earlier withdrawn voting rights of the Uva Province BA and alleged it was done on the instructions of the Ministry of Sports.
They had then submitted an official protest to the director general of sports Ranjani Jayakody at the Sports Ministry who had told them to air their grievances in writing.
Meanwhile the president of the Northern Province Badminton Association, Muralitheran claimed that the SLBA did not give voting rights to the Government Services and the Eastern Province BA and he saw no wisdom in voting.
“The SLBA sent us a letter stating that Uva Province BA did not have voting rights as they were inactive, but on the morning of the election said that Uva were given voting rights. This is absurd. The voting rights of the North and East were reduced.
“We had done a lot to popularize and keep the sport alive in the North and the SLBA had not extended any help to us for the past three years”, said Muralitharan.
“The SLBA has violated the Constitution by giving voting rights to the North-Western Province as well. The election was like a fish market and not peaceful so we walked out,” added Muralitharan.
