- Overseas Lankans to be granted the SL franchise, multi-stakeholder comm. to examine legal amendments/new laws formulation
The Election Commission (EC) has requested Rs. 10 billion through next year’s (2026) national Budget to conduct the long-delayed Provincial Council (PC) Elections.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, EC Chairperson R.M.A.L. Rathnayake said that funds for elections are sought on an annual basis and will continue to be requested until the polls are held. “When there is an election due, we request the necessary funds. Last year (2024), we requested money for the PC Elections, and since they have not yet been held, we made a request this year as well,” he said.
As informed by Rathnayake, The Daily Morning contacted the EC’s Accounts Division to clarify the exact amount requested and an official from the division said that a sum of Rs. 10 billion had been sought to be allocated.
The PC Elections have been postponed for several years due to a legal issue stemming from an amendment that the United National Front Government (2015-2020) sought to introduce.
On an earlier occasion, Public Administration, PCs and Local Government (LG) Deputy Minister Ruwan Senarath told The Daily Morning that the Government intended to begin the legal reform process for PC Elections once the LG Elections were completed. However, the LG Elections, held on 6 May this year were not followed by any visible preparations either to hold the PC Elections or to initiate the necessary legal amendments.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval to examine the necessary legal amendments and formulate new laws to safeguard the voting rights of Sri Lankan citizens residing overseas.
As per Article 3 of the Constitution, the sovereignty rights reserved with the people are used in an election. The right to vote is reserved only for the citizens living within Sri Lanka and who are registered under their names in the electoral register as per the elections law. According to the current elections law, there is no provision to secure any method to cast votes for the citizens residing overseas or no law has been formulated in this regard.
However, it has been recognised as a timely requirement to amend such types of laws. Accordingly, the Cabinet granted their concurrence for the Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils (PCs) and Local Governments (LG) to take action to appoint a committee comprised of officials in the EC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Employment, the Ministry of Public Administration, PCs and LG as well as in the other Ministries and institutions to study particulars relevant to amending laws and the formulation of new laws to safeguard the voting rights of citizens residing overseas.