Confusion worse confounded
Sri Lankan elections, save the presidential polls, are apparently jinxed; they are not held on schedule. In 1975, an SLFP-led government postponed a general election by two years. Five years later, a UNP government went to the extent of replacing a general election with a heavily rigged referendum to retain its five-sixth majority, which it abused to its heart’s content. The UNP-led yahapalana government postponed local government elections by nearly two years and put off the provincial council polls indefinitely. The LTTE did not allow most elections to be held in areas under its control, and even the ones that took place there were far from free and fair. Most of the elections in the other parts of the country were also marred by violence, rigging and other forms of malpractice. Now, another general election has been delayed, and nobody knows when it will take place.
Chairman of the Election Commission (EC) Mahinda Deshapriya has said the much-delayed general election will be held either in July or August, and his outfit has informed the Supreme Court (SC) that it cannot be postponed beyond August. In an interview with Derana TV, yesterday, he said that although the EC had previously asked for nine weeks for preparations, that period could be reduced. If the election can wait until the end of August, the question is why the EC previously set 20 June as the date for it, amidst the Covid-19 crisis, triggering a legal battle.
What if something unexpected happened and the August deadline could not be met? Nothing is so certain as the unexpected, as the saying goes. Whoever would have thought, in early March, Covid-19 would make it impossible to conduct the general election in late April and even in June?
There are several schools of thought anent the constitutional provisions governing the conduct of a general election. One insists that only the President is constitutionally empowered to decide on the date for a general election, and it was wrong for the EC to postpone the election to 20 June; the new Parliament has to have its first sitting before the expiration of three months from the dissolution of the previous one. It maintains that unless this constitutional requirement is fulfilled, the dissolved Parliament has to be reconvened. The SC has dismissed the fundamental rights violation petitions against the EC for setting 20 June as the date for the election. One can argue that the constitutionality of the EC decision to postpone the general election beyond 02 June is no longer in doubt.
The EC Chairman has not explained why the general election has to be conducted before the end of August. One of the tasks the EC has undertaken is to educate the public on matters related to elections and franchise. It conducts seminars, etc., for that purpose. It should clear up confusion in the minds of people as regards its decisions and the legal position thereof.
Meanwhile, the EC Chairman usually does not pull punches or prevaricate. He faces curveballs in interviews or at media briefings boldly and even launches counterattacks, as it were. He dominates discussions, but, strangely, he was on the defensive in the Derana interview, especially when he was asked to comment on dissension in his institution; he did not look confident or sound convincing. He ought to give straight answers to questions on discord in his outfit; the public has a right to know what is going on there. When one member of the EC often strikes discordant notes, even criticizes some of the commission’s decisions and actions and goes so far as to challenge them in courts, then there is a serious problem, which needs to be addressed.
Sri Lankan elections, save the presidential polls, are apparently jinxed; they are not held on schedule. In 1975, an SLFP-led government postponed a general election by two years. Five years later, a UNP government went to the extent of replacing a general election with a heavily rigged referendum to retain its five-sixth majority, which it abused to its heart’s content. The UNP-led yahapalana government postponed local government elections by nearly two years and put off the provincial council polls indefinitely. The LTTE did not allow most elections to be held in areas under its control, and even the ones that took place there were far from free and fair. Most of the elections in the other parts of the country were also marred by violence, rigging and other forms of malpractice. Now, another general election has been delayed, and nobody knows when it will take place.
Chairman of the Election Commission (EC) Mahinda Deshapriya has said the much-delayed general election will be held either in July or August, and his outfit has informed the Supreme Court (SC) that it cannot be postponed beyond August. In an interview with Derana TV, yesterday, he said that although the EC had previously asked for nine weeks for preparations, that period could be reduced. If the election can wait until the end of August, the question is why the EC previously set 20 June as the date for it, amidst the Covid-19 crisis, triggering a legal battle.
What if something unexpected happened and the August deadline could not be met? Nothing is so certain as the unexpected, as the saying goes. Whoever would have thought, in early March, Covid-19 would make it impossible to conduct the general election in late April and even in June?
There are several schools of thought anent the constitutional provisions governing the conduct of a general election. One insists that only the President is constitutionally empowered to decide on the date for a general election, and it was wrong for the EC to postpone the election to 20 June; the new Parliament has to have its first sitting before the expiration of three months from the dissolution of the previous one. It maintains that unless this constitutional requirement is fulfilled, the dissolved Parliament has to be reconvened. The SC has dismissed the fundamental rights violation petitions against the EC for setting 20 June as the date for the election. One can argue that the constitutionality of the EC decision to postpone the general election beyond 02 June is no longer in doubt.
The EC Chairman has not explained why the general election has to be conducted before the end of August. One of the tasks the EC has undertaken is to educate the public on matters related to elections and franchise. It conducts seminars, etc., for that purpose. It should clear up confusion in the minds of people as regards its decisions and the legal position thereof.
Meanwhile, the EC Chairman usually does not pull punches or prevaricate. He faces curveballs in interviews or at media briefings boldly and even launches counterattacks, as it were. He dominates discussions, but, strangely, he was on the defensive in the Derana interview, especially when he was asked to comment on dissension in his institution; he did not look confident or sound convincing. He ought to give straight answers to questions on discord in his outfit; the public has a right to know what is going on there. When one member of the EC often strikes discordant notes, even criticizes some of the commission’s decisions and actions and goes so far as to challenge them in courts, then there is a serious problem, which needs to be addressed.
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