Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya has said that the local government elections will not be held this year.
According to him, from the date the election is announced, the department requires at least 3 months for arrangements, therefore it will not be possible to hold elections this year despite continuous demands from various political parties urging the government to hold the already much delayed local government elections.
“There will be no way for an election to be held before 31st December 2016. We need at least 75 days to 90 days for arrangements,” he told an event in Galle.
He also added that the Elections Commission does not want to hold elections in December as it will hamper the GCE Ordinary Level Examinations held during that month.
justice / September 24, 2016
This is absurd and ridiculous.
Now there is an Election Commission.
Why cannot a mechanism be entrenched, to hold any election within one month of a decision to hold same.
This Election Commissioner should be allowed to retire, and a dynamic public servant with gazetted powers, appointed to the post, who could, along with the Commission, be able to hold elections expeditiously.
Postponing an election amounts to depriving citizens of their fundamental rights.
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Patriot / September 24, 2016
The true Arab Summer will happen when millions take to the streets to chase this Yahapalana incompetent lot.
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Tamil from the north / September 25, 2016
Ado Patriot bugger, is that why in SL why we don’t have no;
•Murders (Political)
•Theft by politicians
•Car races in front of Hilton
•Selling this beautiful land to the f*in Indians and Chinese?
Answer that?
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Thurai / September 25, 2016
This is a ridiculous story. After the Nineteenth Amendment, there is no Election Commissioner or Department of Elections as in this story.
Moreover, if elections are announced today, we still have 90 days to hold elections this year.
I also see a contradiction here. The Election Commission has been saying at press conferences that they have no power to announce the date of elections. Then how can the Commission decide not to have elections in December? So they do have the power to set the date, right?
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NAK / September 27, 2016
The elections commissioner is under strict instructions from his boss not to hold elections until he is ready,which by the way doesn’t seem anywhere in the near future! may be somewhere close to 2020!
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