Author: TELO Admin

Local government election has not been declared legally and therefore, there is no question of a postponement, President Ranil Wickremesinghe stated today.

“An election has not been declared legally as there has not been a quorum when the election commission members decided on the date.

“There has been only two members present when the decision has been made on the date while the two members present had decided on the date and then inquired the view of the remaining members who were not present. The quorum of the election commission meeting is three legally therefore no official declaration of the local government elections legally,” the President said.

“Also the funds for the local polls has not been requested from the election commission. The request letter has been signed by the accountant at Elections Department.

If the Local Government Election is not held as planned, all Local Government Bodies will be moved under the control of the Commissioner from the 20th of March, as the tenure of the Local Government Institutions ends on that day.

Public Administration & Home Affairs Secretary Neel Bandara Hapuhinna stated that accordingly, the secretaries of local councils and municipal councils as well as municipal commissioners are expected to carry out the administrative activities of those institutions.

The petition filed against holding of the local government election is scheduled to be called up at the Supreme Court on Thursday (23).

Based on the decision taken by the Supreme Court, the election commission will meet on Friday (24) and take a decision.

As of now, the postal poll related to the election has been postponed indefinitely due to the failure of the government printer to deliver the required ballot papers.

The Government Printer took that step due to the non-payment of the required money for printing ballot papers.

Recently, Sri Lanka’s National Election Commission informed the Supreme Court that obstacles have arisen with regard to conducting the Local Government Election on the 9th of March 2023 as planned.

Facing a dire national financial crisis and an urgent need to generate foreign currency income, state-owned SriLankan Airlines (SL) is restructuring and expanding its network to markets that were strong in the pre-Covid period, including Australia, and China. India remains the flag-carrier’s largest market, though flights have been reduced from 125 to 90 each week.

With negligible domestic business, the airline is aggressively tapping the Indian market to fly via Sri Lanka to international destinations. “Around 55 to 65 percent of our flights [in Airbus A330-300s] to Sydney with three dailies and a daily to Melbourne comprise passengers from Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, and several secondary Indian cities,” Dimuthu Tennakoon, SL’s head of worldwide sales and distribution, told AIN. SL flies to nine destinations in India, which before the pandemic accounted for around 15 percent of revenues, and plans to add three more soon.

SL carries significant numbers of passengers to Middle Eastern countries from South India as its fares have been competitive with those of Indian and Gulf carriers. Many of the people on these flights are migrant workers in locations including Qatar and the UAE.

“The demand from India is so strong and growing,” said Tennakoon, as the airline continues to consolidate routes. In its quest for restructuring, SL released a request for proposal for five A320 narrowbodies and five A330s on a six-year dry lease. The bids, which were opened on February 7 and are now under discussion, could add significantly to the present fleet strength of 17 aircraft.

Last year, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was then Prime Minister, called for partial privatization of SL and the need for restructuring as it faces payment obligations to suppliers. It has now been almost 15 years since the Sri Lankan government reacquired all the shares in SL from Emirates, which had partially purchased the carrier in 1998.

In August, the government said it would sell a 49 percent stake in its catering and ground-handling business units. The State-Owned Enterprises Restructuring Unit is currently working on recommendations for the cabinet.

Now, as China reopens its borders, SL is to restart operations in the first week of April with tri-weekly services to Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. It has also begun offering international flights to Paris; Frankfurt, Germany; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Seoul, Korea.

Source – AIN

Opposition political parties, except the JVP-led NPP, have appealed to the international community to exert pressure on the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government to conduct the local government polls, scheduled for 09 March.

The following is the text of the letter addressed to heads of diplomatic missions in Colombo. It has been signed by General Secretary, Freedom People’s Alliance Thilanga Sumathipala, Convener Freedom People’s Congress MP Prof. G L Peiris, Leader of the Freedom People’s Congress MP Dullas Alahapperuma, Chairman Uttara Lanka Sabaghaya MP Wimal Weerawansa, Sri Lanka Freedom Party General Secretary MP Dayasiri Jayasekara, Leader Jana Jaya Front MP Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, MP Freedom People’s Front Leader Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, Sri Lanka Mahajana Party General Secretary MP Asanka Navarathne, and Uttara Lanka Sabaghaya General Secretary Dr. G. Weerasinghe: “We would like to express to you our deep concern about the unprecedented situation which has currently arisen in our country with regard to so basic a matter as the franchise of the People.

As you are aware, the time frames for the conduct of elections, at all levels -Presidential, Parliamentary, Provincial Councils, and local government authorities – are defined by the Constitution of Sri Lanka, and other applicable statutory regimes. Compliance with these requirements is mandatory, there being no flexibility or scope for exercise of discretion.

Elections have consistently taken place in our country, at regular intervals, and the nation is justly proud of its rich and vibrant democratic tradition, which is an integral part of our culture.

For the first time in our history, the government of the day has adopted the startling position that an election cannot be held because the financial resources required are not available. The implications of this will be apparent upon a moment’s reflection.

It would now seem, in accordance with the government position that it is for the incumbent administration to decide whether resources can or cannot be utilized for the holding of an election. The matter, consequently, is entirely in the hands of the government in power.

At its sole discretion, the government of the day will be entitled to postpone any election, on the ground of unavailability, or inadequacy of resources – a power which it will no doubt be tempted to exercise in any circumstances, where imminent defeat is probable.

This will inevitably result in withholding from the people their cherished right of suffrage, the source from which all other democratic rights and freedoms flow.

The funds required for the election, scheduled to be held on 9th March, 2023, have been allocated by Parliament in the Annual Appropriation Act, which was passed in December last year.

It is the imperative duty of the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance to place these resources at the disposal of the Election Commission. Failure to do so, manifestly, exposes this official to serious consequences arising from intentional violation of the Constitution.

Article 3 of the Constitution which deals with the Sovereignty of the People, makes reference to “the franchise” which has been authoritatively interpreted by the Supreme Court as including elections to local government bodies. Article 3 is entrenched by Article 83 which has the effect that the former Article can be amended, or repealed, only by a two–thirds majority in Parliament, followed by acceptance by the People at a referendum.

In Mohamed Hussain vs Election Commission of Sri Lanka, the Supreme Court observed: “Local authorities have a long history and play an important role at the grassroots level. Their functions are regulation, control and administration of all matters relating to the public health, public utility services and public thoroughfares and generally with the protection and promotion of comfort, convenience and welfare of the people and the amenities of the town or village. By delay in holding elections people are deprived of representatives who could have addressed their grievances and attended to their welfare and needs”. The Court explicitly held: “The failure to hold elections on the due date or postponing is a violation of the fundamental rights of the people”.

It is clear that every conceivable form of pressure has been brought to bear by the Executive on the Election Commission to prevent them from fulfilling their constitutional obligations. The Commission has publicly referred to more than 20 attempts by the government to thwart the holding of the election.

The result of these sustained initiatives is to erode core democratic values and to place in jeopardy the very survival of the democratic system of governance in Sri Lanka. Entrenchment of this dangerous precedent has incalculable consequences for the wellbeing of our people.

We ask Your Excellencies to bring this distressing state of affairs to the notice of your respective capitals, with a view to prevailing on the government of Sri Lanka to desist from a course of action, gravely detrimental to the nation.”

Despite foreign media sources a few days ago claiming otherwise, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has neither taken a decision nor is considering providing its Executive Board’s approval for Sri Lanka’s External Fund Facility (EFF) before receiving financial assurance from China, The Daily Morning Business learns.

IMF Asia and Pacific Department Director Krishna Srinivasan, during a training programme conducted for South Asian journalists in New Delhi, India referring to the aforementioned foreign media reports, stated that he too came across those reports and said that it is not an official statement put out by the IMF.

Srinivasan stated that the ideal way would be to wait for financial assurance from China. He added, however, that “it is too early to speculate” whether the Fund would consider moving to the next step of providing Executive Board approval before receiving the required assurance.

A few weeks ago, China’s Export and Import Bank (EXIM) provided a two-year moratorium for Sri Lanka, which is insufficient for the IMF to proceed with EFF to Sri Lanka. However, India provided its assurance in January which was followed by the IMF’s confirmation of receipt.

Although local and international economists and Opposition politicians repeatedly pressured the Sri Lankan Government to reach out to the IMF before defaulting on its debts, the Government waited until the economy was in crisis before seeking IMF assistance.

Marking the sixth anniversary of the struggle of the relatives of missing persons, on the 2,190th day, a massive protest involving more than a hundred relatives was held yesterday (20) in Kilinochchi, during which Association for Relatives of Enforced Disappearances President Yogarasa Kanagaranjani urged the international community to identify those responsible for the enforced disappearances of their loved ones by producing them before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Addressing the media, she further said: “This is a struggle for truth and justice. We started this protest on 20 February 2017 at the Kilinochchi Kandasamy Kovil premises. We have joined relatives of all eight districts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces in this. From the 36th United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session, we have been urging for an international inquiry. Even the international community has dragged on the process of identifying the real status of our loved ones. They have extended the time duration. Justice should be delivered at the upcoming UNHRC sessions at the least. It has been six years since we started this struggle and now we are stepping onto the seventh year. It is a sad moment for us. We have been on a struggle to find the whereabouts of our loved ones. The international community should not drag this issue. They should come forward to find a suitable solution to our grief,” she added.

Kanagaranjani also said: “Those responsible for the disappearances of our loved ones should be produced before the ICC. This should be done by the representatives of the international community. This issue is just being discussed in countries worldwide but a suitable solution is yet to be found. None are coming forward to resolve our long-standing issue.”

Commenting on the threats faced by relatives of missing persons, she said: “We face numerous obstacles when staging our protests. There are court injunctions obtained to stop us from protesting. We are being threatened by Intelligence officers. We have nothing to fear from them. We will continue our protests until we resolve our longstanding issues and until we meet our missing loved ones.”

The protest began as a procession from the Kilinochchi Kandasamy Temple and reached the Office on Missing Persons (OMP), with participants raising slogans in front of the office reading: “We don’t want the OMP. We don’t want compensation”.