• Cites election law and LG polls gazette

The Elections Commission (EC) stated that since the Local Government (LG) Elections have been declared, there was no possibility of registering new political parties in the present context, but there was no obstacle for political groups to form alliances with registered political parties either.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, EC Chairman R.M.A.L. Rathnayake said that political parties could not be registered when an election was gazetted by the EC. “If an election has been gazetted, we cannot register new political parties until that election is held. We usually call applications from new political parties for registration in January, but it was not done both last year and this year as the LG elections are yet to be held.”

Although political parties cannot be registered anew until the LG Elections are held, he said that any newly formed political group could align with a registered political party and contest for elections, if any. When such alliances are formed, he said that candidates fielded by non-registered political parties would have to contest under a registered political party. 

With the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections scheduled to be held this year and next year, respectively, new political parties, movements and alliances, and election candidates are currently being talked about. Some MPs who contested the 2020 Parliamentary General Election from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and then became Opposition MPs have formed new political groups such as the Supreme Lanka Coalition and Freedom People’s Alliance, while some others have been formed by civil activists. 

The LG Elections were initially scheduled to be held in March 2023, but the Finance, Economic Stabilisation, and National Policies Ministry and the General Treasury had not released the required funds to the EC, which then rescheduled the elections to April 2023. Since the funds were not released by that time too, the EC once again postponed the elections, indefinitely.