Sri Lanka's upcoming elections will be conducted by a man who is fed up and wants to quit, the campaign includes saffron-robed Buddhist monks who detest politics and few want the ballot in the first place.
Elections Commissioner Dayanada Dissanayake says he is reluctantly holding the April 2 snap polls after the country's Supreme Court rejected his appeal to retire on reaching the age of 60 in April 2002.
"I may remain the commissioner till the year 3000," Dissanayake joked, lamenting that his efforts to throw in the towel had failed and he has become the victim of a constitutional web.
Parliament established an independent elections commission in October 2001, but President Chandrika Kumaratunga has not named a person to head the new outfit and so Dissanayake will have to remain in office.
The president has not said why she is not naming a new head to the elections commission, which is entrusted with sweeping powers to conduct free and fair elections, but Dissanayake is an unhappy man.
"I went to the Supreme Court because I wanted to retire," Dissanayake said. He told court that he suffered five heart attacks at his "highly stressful job." But his "please release me" pleas last year brought no results.
It is not only the elections chief who is a reluctant party in the polls: an all-monks party taking part has similar complaints.
The National Heritage Party, grouping nearly 300 Buddhist monks contesting 225 parliamentary seats, says it loathes politics and dislikes all politicians, but wants state power to build a "righteous society."
Most of the top rung Buddhist candidates are better known as teachers of meditation or preachers of the Dhamma, Buddha's teachings, and politics is uncharted territory for them.
The influence of monks in a country where 69 percent of the population are Buddhists is a worrying factor for others in the elections, particularly the president's newly formed alliance with Marxists, which has hard-line nationalistic elements in it.
The secretary of the monks' party, Uduwe Dhammaloka, said that since it announced its candidature for all 225 parliamentary seats, there had been pressure on them from mainstream political parties to back down.
Kumaratunga had invited them for talks, but they had declined.
"There are some who believe that by our contesting they will lose some of their votes," Dhammaloka said. "We are not interested in all that. We want to protect Buddhism that is now under siege in this country."
Asked whether they hoped to be a third force in the country where the Sinhalese community is split between two parties, Dhammaloka said: "We are going to be the first force ... Buddha is the first force. Buddha is our leader... and Dhamma is our manifesto."
Dhammaloka said entering politics was not against Buddhism and the party's objective was to turn Sri Lanka into a "righteous state".
"First we need to save the country," the monk told reporters and well-wishers before setting off from a temple here Friday to file nomination papers. "Then we will have people who will listen to our sermons."
It is not clear how the monks will manage a campaign in a country where the run up elections is usually soaked in blood. At least 41 people were killed and over 700 wounded during the campaign for the December 2001 parliamentary elections.
Polls chief Dissanayake said he could not immediately say if the level of violence this time could be greater until the names of candidates were all in by Tuesday.
However, he said he would set in place "secret measures" to prevent rigging and malpractice and also for the first time order fresh polling in areas where balloting is marred by violence on polling day.
He is also inviting foreign observers and giving unprecedented access to local poll monitors to go into booths and counting centres - in sharp contrast to previous polls when such entry was denied.
The election, costing over 10 million dollars for the state and parties, was called after a tug-of-war between Kumaratunga and her nemesis Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe came to a head on February 7 and she sacked parliament.
Privately run newspapers have said the country could ill afford a third parliamentary election in four years and that voters did not want another ballot.