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SL responds to former Irish President

23 Nov 2020

No party/person voted out has refused to step down

In response to a comment made by former Irish President and The Elders Chair Mary Robinson, Sri Lanka said no party or person voted out at elections in Sri Lanka had refused to accept results. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sri Lankan High Commissioner in the UK Saroja Sirisena wrote to Robinson and the editors of the newspapers, drawing attention to the inaccuracy of Robinson’s comments. The article cited Robinson as saying: “It is shocking to have to raise concerns about US democratic processes as The Elders have previously commented on volatile and undemocratic situations in states such as Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe.” High Commissioner Sirisena pointed out that Sri Lanka is one of Asia’s oldest and uninterrupted democracies where people have been exercising universal suffrage since 1931 and that successive governments in Sri Lanka have always been elected democratically at elections held in a timely manner, adding that subsequent transfer of power has always been swift, smooth, and peaceful. “There has never been a situation in Sri Lanka’s electoral history where a party or person voted out at elections refusing to accept the people’s verdict,” Sirisena said.  


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