Govt. decides to grant voting rights for Sri Lankans overseas

After several years of campaigning over the past few year, the Government has decided to grant voting rights for Sri Lankans overseas.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers granted their concurrence to take actions by the Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Governments to appoint a committee comprised of officials in the Elections Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employments and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Governments as well as in the other Ministries and institutions to study particulars relevant to amend laws and formulation of new laws to safeguard voting rights of citizens offshores.

Cabinet Spokesman Minister Dr Nalinda Jayatissa today announced details of the Cabinet decision taken in this regard.

The Cabinet noted that the right to vote is reserved only by the citizens living within Sri Lanka and registered their names in the electoral register as per the elections law.

 According to the current elections law there is no provision to secure any method to cast votes for the citizens off shores or no law has been formulated in the regard.

However, many Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, Philippines have formulated legal strategies to enable their citizens in off shores to cast votes and it has been recognized as a timely requirement to amend such type of laws for Sri Lanka as well.