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80 parties battle for approval while DP gets a tick
View(s):More than 80 applications to register new parties have been put on the back-burner by the Commissioner of Elections over the past two years, with the granting of approval this week to the Democratic Party headed by the former army commander Sarath Fonseka the only break in the pattern of rejections.
The delays are due to non-compliance with the necessary criteria, a senior official at the Department said. The Additional Commissioner for Elections, U. Amaradasa said that 84 applications are pending since 2010, when the Government last announced it would accept applications to register political parties, because there are “some legal drawbacks delaying the process”, Mr Amaradasa said. Mr Fonseka’s Democratic Party (DP) was registered last Monday.
Four parties had their applications rejected outright last year – the Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front, the National Unity Alliance, the People’s Liberation of Tamil Tigers and the United National Alternative Front. Mr. Fonseka told the Sunday Times that the struggle to have his party registered had been a long drawn-out process and he had to seek the intervention of the Human Rights Commission to get final approval.
He said the DP would contest in the forthcoming Provincial Council elections in the Central and North-Western provinces. “I’m confident about the upcoming elections. We hope to change the political culture in the country and to topple this corrupt regime,” he said.
The DP had already started campaigning in the Central and North-Western provinces. “We are hoping to stage a rally in Badulla on the 28th of this month, and following that there will be a major party rally in Colombo on May 1,” Mr Fonseka said.
The DP leader said several candidates from the UNP, including MPs Ranga Bandara and Ashok Abeysinghe, would be contesting the elections as DP candidates. Mr Fonseka has named Mr Jayantha Ketagoda as the new party’s deputy leader, and Ananda Manawadu as general secretary.
There are currently 64 registered political parties in Sri Lanka.
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