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Election would cost more than 2020 election’s Rs. 5.7 bn 

12 Jul 2022

More than Rs. 5.7 billion would be needed in order to conduct a General Election, sources at the Election Commission (EC) told The Morning yesterday (11).  “At the last General Election in August 2020, we spent Rs. 5.7 billion, so the budget would increase if we were to hold an election soon. Our costs are mostly allocated to the Ceylon Electricity Board, allowances for staff, the Sri Lanka Post, the Police, and printing costs,” an official at the Election Commission told The Morning.  They added that according to the Constitution, a sitting President can only dissolve the current Parliament two and a half years from its first sitting date, stating: “This Parliament started in August 2020, so it can only be dissolved by the President in March 2023.”  The official website of the Parliament notes that the current Parliament’s first sitting date was 20 August 2020. However, Article 70(1)(a) of the Constitution states that the Parliament can, by resolution, request the President to dissolve Parliament before the completion of two and a half years from its first sitting date.  “After an Election is called by the Election Commission, the Election will have to be held between seven to nine weeks later.”  Sri Lanka is currently undergoing a political crisis as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has stated that he will resign tomorrow (13), following months of an islandwide people’s struggle demanding his resignation, which ultimately resulted in protestors storming the official President’s house, the Presidential Secretariat and the Temple Trees. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has stated that he will resign only if another interim Government is formed immediately afterwards. Yesterday, all members of the Cabinet of Ministers had agreed with Wickremesinghe to hand over their resignations as soon as there is an agreement to form an all-party Government.  Various groups and political parties have also called for both a Presidential Election and a General Election to be held as soon as possible, as they maintain that the 2019 mandate for the current President and the 2020 mandate for the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna are no longer valid.  


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