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Despite uncertainty many political parties hand over deposits for local council polls
View(s):By S. Rubatheesan
Despite uncertainty of over the holding of local elections in March, political parties have begun handing over their deposits across the country for the polls while finalising their nomination lists as the National Election Commission (NEC) informed the Supreme Court that all necessary steps have been taken to conduct the polls.
When the writ petition, filed by retired Army Colonel W. M. R. Wijesundara, seeking a Supreme Court directive to issue an injunction against holding the local council elections was taken up on Friday, Saliya Pieris PC, appearing for the Commission, informed the court that it was ready to hold elections.
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the Jathika Jana Balawegaya (NPP) led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have been in the forefront of placing their deposits.
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the Jathika Jana Balawegaya (NPP) led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have been in the forefront of placing their deposits.
On Friday deposits were placed in 20 districts by the main parties. Nominations for the local council elections will be received from January 18 to January 21 for elections to 340 local councils. The elections are to be held for 24 municipal councils, 41 urban councils and 275 pradeshiya sabha. At the upcoming polls 16.6 million voters are eligible to vote to elect 8,711 local council members. But the delimitation committee has proposed that the number of elected candidates be reduced to around 5000.
NEC sources said it was most likely a date in early March would be selected for the polls giving time for the Commission to gazette the names of the elected members and the formation of the councils.
Due to rifts in parties and the formation of new alliances a number of local council members were seen shifting their parties and seeking nominations from different parties. Among them had been United National Party (UNP) members who were seeking nominations from the SJB and the SLPP split forcing its members to seek nominations from other parties.
From the Gampaha district, some Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members were to contest separately or seek nominations from other parties, following the ruling in the Fundamental Rights petitions related to the Easter Sunday attacks against former President Maithripala Sirisena.
In the North, Tamil political parties were busy finalising their new political alliances following the decision by three constituent parties led electoral alliance–the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to contest the upcoming local council polls separately, rather than under a common symbol.
The decision was taken on Monday following a meeting convened at TNA leader R. Sampanthan’s Colombo residence, with representatives of three parties; the Ikankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and Tamil Eelam Revolution Organisation (TELO).
It was also decided that based on the number of seats each party received at the election, they would continue to work under the TNA banner in future as a collective body that represented the Tamil people in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
After weeks long discussions five political parties; TELO, PLOTE, Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary front (EPRLF), the Tamil Nationalist Party, and the Democratic Cadres Party, a group of former cadres, entered into an electoral agreement yesterday to contest elections in the North and East under the lamp symbol.
ITAK, the main constituent party of the TNA, filed nominations papers this week for selected councils in Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. Meanwhile independent election watchdogs called for disciplinary action against the Ministry Secretary for interfering in the electoral process stressing that a mere apology note for issuing such an arbitrary letter was not sufficient enough for violating the Constitution.
People’s Action for Free & Fair Elections (PAFFREL) Executive Director Rohana Hettiyarachchi said interfering in the electoral process was a serious violation under the Constitution and senior government officials should not be allowed to get away with a simple apology note.
“They could be under political pressure but they should know better as senior administrative staff of the government, not to violate the Constitution. If allowed, this would be an example in future elections as well where directives from the Commission might be downplayed,” Mr Hettiyarachchi said. Along with PAFFREL, other watchdogs wrote to the Public Service Commission on the conduct of the Ministry Secretary and urged it to take appropriate actions to ensure the recurrence of similar interventions of government officials in the electoral process did not take place.
| Indigenous Community to nominate several candidates for local polls By Palitha Ariyawansha Indigenous Community Leader Uruwarige Wannila Aththo said this was not the first time people from the indigenous community were contesting the local council elections in Sri Lanka. He said his daughter-in-law was already a member of the Dehiattakandiya Pradeshiya Sabha and this time three young people from the community would contest the local council elections, representing the National Democratic Front. Accordingly, three candidates would be from Ampara, Dambana and Madulla in the Monaragala district. The leader said the National Democratic Front had contacted him and requested him to nominate some contestants from the community and he gave the approval. “People are trying to say different things with regard to these nominations, but I must say this is not the first time we are contesting for local council elections. There is an aboriginal group in the Parliament of Australia and in New Zealand. However, for us there is no representation in this supreme authority, and there is no ministry. Our people are also under severe economic pressure and we have to be represented at least at local council level” he said. He said perhaps in the future, it would not be impossible for the indigenous community to run for the provincial council or general election and they were sure of the peoples’ support. | |
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