Employees should be granted special leave to vote : Elections Commissioner

All employees should be granted special leave to vote at the forthcoming local government election on February 10,  Chairman of the Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya was quoted as saying.

According to the government news portal the made these disclosure citing Section 84(a) of the Local Authorities Elections Ordinance (Chapter 262) regarding the duty of employers to grant leave to employees to vote.

The Chairman has reproduced the relevant section below for information of Employers and Employees.

84A (1) Any person, being the employer of any other person who is entitled to vote at any election under this Ordinance shall, upon application in writing in that behalf made by such other person, grant such other person, leave, without loss of pay, for such continuous period (not less than two hours in duration) as that person may deem sufficient to enable such other person to vote at that election.

Any person who contrives or foils to comply with the provisions of sub-section (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall. On conviction after summary trial before a Magistrate, be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees, or to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding nine months or to both such tine and imprisonment.

In terms of the provision of the above Section every employee who applies for leave in writing to cast his vote should be given leave. The period of leave so granted should be treated as special leave without loss of pay and also outside the normal entitlement of leave. These provisions are applicable to casual and temporary employees as well.

The employers should decide on the maximum duration having taken into consideration, the distance between the place of work and the polling station and also the time taken to travel such distance. Since there have been several complaints from the employees al previous elections regarding the problems in obtaining the leave stipulated by the law, all employers in the Public and Private Sector are kindly requested to comply with the legal requirement at this poll.

The poll will take place on Saturday the I0th February, 2018 from 7.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.