The newly appointed Election Commission (EC) has forwarded two requests to the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilisation, and National Policies, asking for necessary financial provisions to settle payments owed to various institutions that carried out activities pertaining to the Local Government (LG) Elections 2023.
Although the EC had initiated work pertaining to the holding of the LG Elections, it had to be postponed indefinitely due to the lack of financial provisions and the EC was reconstituted.
The Daily Morning asked EC Chairman R.M.A.L. Ratnayake if any new action had been taken regarding the LG Elections. In response, he mentioned that they have submitted two requests to the Ministry and Treasury Secretary, Mahinda Siriwardana, seeking the release of the necessary funds. “Much work related to the LG Elections has been carried out as of now. For such work, we should settle the payments, and we have received only a part of the required provisions. Therefore, I have sent two letters to Siriwardana and requested him to release the required funds.”
The EC has, however, not received a response from the Ministry.
In response to a query regarding the LG Elections, he said that the related work has now come to a standstill. “For the LG Elections to be held, we should either receive money or a court order should be issued to hold it. Until one of that happens, the related work will remain at a standstill.”
The LG Elections 2023 was initially scheduled to be held on 9 March but was rescheduled to 25 April due to the lack of funds. It was later postponed indefinitely, as the necessary financial provisions were not made available by the Treasury in April as well. There is no apparent preparation to hold the said elections to date, and the same has caused serious opposition against the Government. It is against such a backdrop that ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Government Parliamentarian Jayantha Ketagoda recently tabled a private member motion in Parliament, seeking to empower the Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils, and LG Minister to extend the tenure of the lapsed LG bodies without elections.