• Election Commission to summon Public Administration and Home Affairs Ministry Secy.

Commenting on the directive issued by Public Administration Secretary Neil Hapuhinna instructing district secretaries to stop accepting deposits from parties expecting to contest at the upcoming Local Government election, the former Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya called it a mere ‘piece of paper’. 

Deshapriya said all duties assigned to District Secretaries who are appointed as returning officers through a Gazette, can be carried out by Deputy/Assistant Election Commissioners who are duly gazetted district assistant returning officers. 

Hapuhinna in the letter to the District Secretaries, some of whom are also returning officers for their respective districts, said the directive was being issued based on a Cabinet decision made on 9 January and they should therefore not accept deposits until further notice.  This letter was recalled later. 

“Deposits are accepted not by returning officers but by Deputy/Assistant Election Commissioners. Therefore, the letter that attempted to use the same tactic of 2018 but had to be shut down due to the intervention of the Election Commission is a mere piece of paper,” he said. 

In a related development, the Election Commission of Sri Lanka has decided to summon the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs Neil Bandara Hapuhinna over the directive.

Election Commission Chairman Nimal Punchihewa said Hapuhinna will be summoned and inquiries made on the directive issued on behalf of the Cabinet on the instructions of the Cabinet Secretary. 

BASL fumes over Govt. attempts to interfere in exercise of franchise