EC appoints committee to study registered political parties named on ethnic/religious lines

• Committee will study party constitutions and submit report
• EC to allow such parties to change names to ones that are representative of all Sri Lankans

The Election Commission (EC) has appointed a five-member committee headed by an Additional Commissioner of Elections to study registered political parties that are named on ethnic or religious lines.

The committee will study the constitutions of such parties and submit a report to the EC, which is considering allowing only national political parties to be registered with the commission.

The EC plans to allow such registered parties to change their party names and remain as registered parties, but the names will have to be representative of all Sri Lankans, the Daily FT learns.

The decision to appoint the committee was taken at an EC meeting held on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the EC said that the four political parties that have not submitted their audited accounts for 2019 have time till 22 April to do so.

If they fail to submit the audited accounts by then, these parties will be delisted, the EC said.