Rajapaksa slams amendments to PC elections law

Friday, 22 September 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Criticises postponement of provincial council elections
Says “hasty and ad hoc” changes are undermining representative democracy
Insists he championed democracy by holding polls in East

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday slammed what he termed as the indefinite postponement of provincial council elections through the latest amendment to the Provincial Council Elections Act and called on the public to oppose the move.

Releasing a statement, he insisted the people should unite and organise to oppose this “attempt to destroy the democratic institutions in this country.”

“The UNP, the SLFP faction allied to the UNP, the Tamil National Alliance, the JVP and other yahapalana conspirators acting in concert have introduced changes to the provincial councils elections law in order to indefinitely postpone PC elections,” he added.

The statement noted that though the dissolution of the provincial councils will take place as scheduled, the latest changes to the provincial councils elections law will enable the Government to indefinitely delay elections to the councils on the excuse that constituencies need to be demarcated.

“This was the same excuse this government used to postpone the elections to the local government bodies which have now been delayed by over two and a half years,” he said, adding, “Such gross abuse of the law-making process has never before been experienced in this country.”

“This government has stood the law-making process on its head in their attempt to avoid holding elections. Amendments to bills at the committee stage in Parliament are brought only to make minor technical changes to facilitate the passage of the Bill. But in the past few days, the government has used committee stage amendments (introduced to bills brought for a completely different purpose) to change the system of election to local government institutions and the provincial councils.”

Even the change to the system of election to local government bodies was slammed by Rajapaksa, who insisted there is an increasing mismatch between the system of election to the local government bodies and the provincial councils.

“Changes are being made to the election laws without any guiding principles. These hasty and ad hoc changes to the election laws are placing the very edifice of representative democracy in this country in grave danger.”

“A little over a decade ago, there were no local government institutions or a provincial council functioning in the East because of the terrorists. Now there are no local government bodies in the East and elsewhere as well and the existing provincial councils are to go into oblivion one by one because of the yahapalana government.”

Rajapaksa charged that even the JVP’s ban on elections in 1988/89 and the LTTE’s terrorism over three decades was never able to bring the electoral process in this country to a complete halt.

“This government has also openly insulted the judiciary and flouted the Constitution by introducing changes to the provincial councils election law through the backdoor when the Supreme Court had given a clear ruling.”

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