The Election Commission yesterday (12) condemned the Government’s subtle attempts to postpone the Provincial Council (PC) elections and stated that it would soon take a decision on conducting the said polls before March of next year.
Election Commission Chairman Attorney Nimal Punchihewa, addressing the media yesterday, asserted that this has led to the public believing that the PCs are not operational, and that they yet receive resources allocated by the Government. He stated that the postponement of elections has led to a situation where the duties of public representatives are executed by officials of the PCs.
“PCs do exist and there are ministries that are regulated under them. The Government accordingly allocates financial and other resources to them. All these occur under the jurisdiction of one individual and that is the Provincial Governor. We do not approve of officials executing duties that have to be performed by public representatives. The PCs have not disappeared, but have been made to disappear by postponing the PCs elections, which were to be held in March this year, to 21 March of next year. The commission is entirely against postponing elections as such,” said Punchihewa.
Furthermore, he stated: “The commission has the legal authority to hold the elections, six months after the due date and accordingly, the commission has gained the right to announce the elections after 20 September. We are now confirming our electoral registry. If we do not confirm this, then it would contain the same names as the voter register from 2021 and if so, close to 250,000 youth voters would not be provided with their rightful opportunity to vote and the commission is therefore not willing to do that.
“Thus, considering all these factors, the commission will decide regarding holding these elections soon. Either way, the commission is determined to hold these elections before March of next year.”
In addition to this, the members of the “Nidahasa Janatha Sabha” engaged in a special discussion with Punchihewa at the commission premises yesterday. Addressing the media prior to the discussion, the group criticised the Government’s shortcomings in not holding the elections by the due date.
“These days, discussions regarding the elections are prevalent, so we came to discuss regarding the regulations of presenting oneself to these future elections,” said MP Prof. Charitha Herath who is a member of the said group.
Meanwhile, MPs Dr. Nalaka Godahewa and Prof. G.L. Peiris concurred with Prof. Herath. “Under the law, elections have to be held. We hope to conduct a thorough discussion regarding these elections with the Election Commission,” they stated.