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The current spotlight on the holding of the local government elections has brought to the forefront several important home truths.

With the Government and the Opposition trading accusations over the holding of the elections, the role of the National Elections Commission has gained added significance. Constitutionally the power and duty to conduct free and fair elections is vested in the National Election Commission.

With the removal by the 20th Amendment of the safeguards put in place by the 19th Amendment to ensure the independence of the various commissions, the President was free to appoint anyone of his choice to the various commissions without the intervention of an intermediary multi-party body like the Constitutional Council. 

The appointment of Nimal Punchihewa, who was viewed by many as a sympathiser/supporter of Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the Chairman of the National Election Commission (NEC), did not have much immediate significance as there were no immediate elections in the offing.

However with the local government elections becoming due before March this year, the NEC is being watched carefully by political observers and political parties.

In fact the NEC has been doing the groundwork for the elections for a considerable period of time. Nimal Punchihewa, who had been the head of the Legal Division of the NEC for several years, was quite familiar with the internal workings of the election machinery long before he became the Chairman. Together with the rest of the NEC officials the electoral registers have been regularly revised and kept up to date to meet the needs of any election.

Hence when the time came for calling the local government elections the NEC was ready and set in motion the necessary steps to conduct the elections. In fact it is the political parties who seem to have been caught off guard and are scrambling to pick their candidates and form various alliances to face the elections.

The Government and its supporters have been questioning the timing of the elections on the basis that the economy cannot afford spending a large amount of money for this purpose at this time. The Opposition political parties and civil society organisations including election monitoring groups have strongly campaigned for the conduct of the local government elections as scheduled.

The NEC is standing its ground and proceeding with all the steps necessary to conduct the elections. The conduct of the NEC clearly shows there are individuals in the country who can exercise their independence and carry out their duties without fear or favour. It also shows even individuals who have political leanings can act independently when their office requires them to do so.

The absence of a mechanism to support the exercise of such independence does not absolve them of their obligations to carry out the duties entrusted to them legally and Constitutionally.

The existence of such a mechanism only helps and facilitates the exercise of their independence but the absence of such an empowering mechanism does not detract from their obligations laid down by the law.

The conduct of the current NEC is proof of this truth. Such is also the case of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka which despite its appointment under the provisions of the 20th Amendment has shown a great deal of independence in its work.

In the meantime the NEC continues to face several challenges both in and outside court in its efforts to conduct the elections on time. The NEC informed the Supreme Court last week that it had made all arrangements to conduct the local government elections in accordance with the law.

The intimation to the Supreme Court was made by.President’s Counsel Saliya Pieris, who appeared for the NEC, when a writ petition asking the Supreme Court to issue an injunction against holding the local government elections, filed by retired Army Colonel W. M. R. Wijesundara, was taken up.

President’s Council Saliya Pieris told the Court that the Attorney General had informed the NEC that the AG would not represent the NEC. Why the AG chose not to represent the NEC was not known.

In the back and forth of political parties trading accusations about the need to hold local government elections, Samagi Jana Balawegaya Parliamentarian Eran Wickremeratne called for the dates of the various elections to be stipulated in the Constitution.

Mr. Wickremeratne made this call at a media briefing held last week. He said:

“Some elections can actually be held on the same day. If the dates for elections are written in the Constitution, politicians will not be able to manipulate the dates for their own gain.”

Mr. Wickremeratne said the cost of holding a local government election, i.e. ten billion rupees, was peanuts, compared to the overall government expenditure for this year.

“The government expenditure for 2023 is 7,900 billion. What is ten billion rupees, compared to 7,900 billion rupees. Those who claim there is no money for elections are trying to deprive the people of their fundamental rights,” he said.

(javidyusuf@gmail.com)