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PC polls: Deshapriya urges President to go to court
The Election Commission has written to President Maithripala Sirisena requesting him to seek a Supreme Court clarification on the law pertaining to the provincial council elections, its Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya told the Sunday Times.
According to Article 33(1)(d) of the Constitution, the President, on the advice of the Election Commission, must create a proper environment to conduct the polls.
The letter to the President was sent last week in a bid to expedite the process of holding the PC elections which had been delayed by several months, he said. The main reason was the failure to submit the Delimitation Review Report, Mr Deshapriya said.
A delimitation review committee was appointed last year after it failed to get parliament’s approval. However, this committee has not submitted its report yet.
Mr. Deshapriya said there was confusion over the existing Amended Provincial Councils Act, with some parties arguing that it was inactive since the delimitation report had not been passed in Parliament.
“If the Supreme Court holds that the amended Provincial Council Act is still active, then the President can gazette the delimitation report since the review report has not been submitted yet,” the chairman said.
In addition, the Election Commission would next week send a letter to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, a member of the delimitation review committee, urging that the review report be tabled before Parliament soon.
He would also urge the premier to put forward the defeated delimitation report before Parliament. If the delimitation report was not available, then the Supreme Court would have to decide on whether the old delimitation report could be used to conduct the polls, Mr. Deshapriya said.
“The basic principles of democracy have been ignored since delaying elections is a violation of human rights. This is the stance of the Election Commission,” the chairman said.
He pointed out that the Supreme Court, in two verdicts, had issued rulings to this effect.
Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had informally told Mr. Deshapriya that he hopes to conduct the provincial polls by August, the Sunday Times learns.
The Election Commission will meet on April 11 to discuss further measures it would have to take regarding the PC polls
“The law does not restrict the Election Commission from going before the Supreme Court. However, we would arrive at a final decision in this regard by next week,” the chairman said.
However, it now seems unlikely that the relevant enactments could be passed in Parliament by August to conduct the polls.
“The Commission requires two months to plan out the elections. But, the process of passing the relevant laws through Parliament will take at least one-and-a-half months,” Mr. Deshapriya said.
He stressed that the polls could have been held by August 15 if the necessary enactments were passed by April.