The Secretary of the National People’s Power (NPP) Specialist Dr Nihal Abeysinghe, has addressed a letter to the Chairman of the Election Commission, lawyer Nimal Punchihewa, stating that according to the Supreme Court’s order, arrangements for the local government elections should be made as soon as possible and an early date should be set for the holding of the local government elections. A translation of the letter is given below:- The Chairman, Election Commission, Office of the Election Commission, Sarana Road, Rajagiriya. Mr Chairman, Re the local government elections 2023 The Election Commission of Sri Lanka on 29.12.2022 announced the Local Government Election 2023 through Government Special Gazette 2312/44 in accordance with the Local Government Election Ordinance Act and thereafter, as per the instructions of the Election Commission, Election Commissioner General Saman Shri Ratnayake issued a press release on 04.01.2023 announcing the dates for submission of nominations and deposit of security for the local government elections. Accordingly, the Election Commission announced 2023.03.09 as the election date for the 2023 local government elections and designated the period from 22.02.2023 to 2023.02.24 for postal voting in the said election. However, while the date for the election had been set in this way, the government’s Treasury and the Ministry of Finance had not properly made the necessary financial allocations for the above election, for the printing of ballot papers, obtaining the police service required for the security of the election, and other election-related matters. The execution of the tasks was dubious, and as a result, your Commission announced that the said election would not be held on the scheduled date. However, yesterday (2023.03.03), in the fundamental rights case No. SC FR 69/2023, which was heard in the Supreme Court, an interim order was issued preventing the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance from withholding the money allocated for the 2023 local government election and money allocated for the Government Printer from the budget for 2023 adopted in the budget passed for the year 2023 by the President as the Minister of Finance, who is the first respondent in the case, and the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance. According to the above orders, the Supreme Court, the highest court of Sri Lanka, has acted on the importance of holding the local government election, considering it a fundamental human right. Given the facts, I request the Commission to make arrangements to hold the local government election as soon as possible per the Supreme Court order and to fix a date as soon as possible for the local government election.Yours truly, Specialist Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe Secretary, National People’s Power 04.03.2023 0 Comments

*Enter your name

*2 characters minimum.

Do not change these fields following

The post Give a quick date – NPP writes to EC Chairman appeared first on LankaTruth.