Election Commission wants to go through cabinet decisions before implementation

The  Election Commission has informed the government to seek clearance of cabinet decisions, before implementation as some of them my contravene election regulations.

Chairman of the Commission R.M.A.L. Ratnayake told TimesOnline that some of the cabinet decision may be about recruitment, transfers, promotions, development activities and the Commission would to look into them, if it would have an impact on the upcoming local elections.

He said they would have stop some programmes, in the event they would have an impact on the elections and request to postpone them until the polls are held on May 6.

In addition, Ministry Secretaries and Heads of Departments have already been informed to keep the Election Commission informed of their recruitment, promotion and other development programmes to ensure they have no influence on the elections.

He said that some of the development programmes in the provinces while the Assistant Election Commissioners in the districts have been instructed to monitor programmes of state institutions including distribution of items to ensure they do not violate the elections.

Political party secretaries were yesterday summoned to the Election Commission to discuss about the implementation of the campaign finance laws inorder to determine the amounts to be spent by the parties.  The maximum expenditure per party and candidate is due to be announced next week.

Party secretaries were also briefed about the regulations on setting up party offices in the respective areas for the campaign. 

By Damith Wickremasekara