No reason to further delay LG polls say watchdogs

• Polls should be held within 75 days of the Amendment Bill passing in P’ment  
• Election monitors warn delays could spill over to provincial elections 

By Himal Kotelawala

Once the Speaker has placed his signature on the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill, there is no reason to further postpone the long delayed Local Government (LG) elections, a collective of election monitoring bodies and civil society organisations said yesterday.

Holding a joint press briefing in Colombo, the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) and Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), among others, urged the Government to ensure that the elections are held as soon as possible.

Speaking to the media, PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchie said that in their discussions held with the Election Commission it was made clear that, barring some technicalities, all issues pertaining to the staging of the LG polls have been ironed out and that elections can and should be held within 75 days of the Amendment Bill being passed in Parliament.

“We asked the Election Commission if there were any further issues with regard to delimitation. The answer was clear: there are none. There is no problem with regard to implementation either. Thirdly, and most crucially, technical difficulties - which will be taken up in Parliament today - after which the ball will be in the court of the political parties, both Government and Opposition,” said Hettiarachchie.

Once the Bill has been passed, he said, the election can be held within 75 days. “So we believe within the next four months this matter can be put to rest,” he said, expressing his hope that the politicians that had been shouting themselves hoarse demanding an election do their duty in Parliament.

Hettiarachchie further said that the responsibility of delaying the LG polls must be shared by both the present Government and the previous regime. The technical issues had already been identified by 2013 and reported to the Ministry in charge, but the Government at the time was unable to present it to Parliament. The Yahapalana Government too delayed it by a further two years.

“The former leaders tried to influence the people’s right by holding elections in segments. The present leaders are doing worse than that by postponing elections. This is not something we as civil society organisations can condone,” he said.

CaFFE Executive Director Keerthi Tennakoon said that under the pretext of holding all elections simultaneously, in addition to delaying the LG polls, the Government was also trying to either bring forward or delay elections to the Sabaragamuwa, North Central and Eastern Provincial Councils.

Elections to the three councils are due to be held in September this year and according to Tennakoon, postponing the Provincial Council (PC) elections requires a constitutional amendment which will in turn require a national referendum.  “The delay in LG polls is, the way we see it, being used to either bring the PC polls forward or to delay the PC polls along with the LG polls. There is a project underway to withdraw the electoral map of this country by using the need to hold all elections simultaneously as a pretext,” he charged.

The last time such an attempt was made, he said, was in 1975 by the then Sirimavo Bandaranaike Government, resulting in a landslide victory for the UNP at the next general elections which paved the way for  much turmoil and even all out war, he said.

Tennakoon also said that garbage collection has come to standstill due to the delay in LG elections.

“The backbenchers of the Joint Opposition do seem to be furiously demanding an election, but all these parties brag about the number of people they brought to their May Day rallies. If their opposition is genuine, they can and should bring hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of Colombo and protest this and force the Parliament to go ahead with it,” he added.

TISL Electoral Integrity Project Manager Sashee De Mel said that though the Government took “very progressive steps” to form independent commissions, including the elections commission through the 19th Amendment, the country is at a very unfortunate state where despite the existence of a sound election commission it is unable to carry out its mandate and conduct elections due to political interference.

“It is extremely clear that [the election] is not held because of political unwillingness, and it is in the hands of policymakers and Parliamentarians, the public representatives of this country, to conduct the election as soon as possible,” said De Mel.

“We’ve held discussions with the elections commission and it’s very clear that this issue is out of their hands but they’re taking every step possible to ensure that they’re prepared to hold the election as soon as possible. They generally need about six days to hold an election but they say they’ll need an additional 15 days because it’s an election held under a new system and they need to get the new ballot papers sorted out,” she added.

According to De Mel, the commission has started working on the registers and issuing its own officers so that an election can be held as soon as possible. In this sort of circumstance, she said, it’s obvious that it’s the parliamentarians that are delaying the elections.