SLC elections fixed for 31 May

By Madushka Balasuriya

Sri Lanka Cricket has been given permission to hold board elections on 31 May, the Ministry of Sports has announced. 

Earlier this month, SLC had sought the approval of the Sports Ministry to hold elections foregoing a mandatory 40-day waiting period from the date of announcement, a request that the Ministry had forwarded to the Attorney General’s Department. The AG’s department has now given the all-clear.

As such, an Extraordinary General Meeting will take place on 19 May where the SLC membership will appoint an independent election committee, and elections will be held on 31 May at an Annual General Meeting.

SLC elections were initially supposed to take place on 19 May. However, the Sports Ministry ordered they be postponed on technical grounds after it was declared that SLC had flouted sports law in naming an election committee at an Executive Committee meeting as opposed to an EGM. While SLC claimed they had received permission in this regard from previous Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera, new Sports Minister Faiszer Mustapha insisted that constitutional protocol be followed. 

SLC constitution states that members need to be given at least 14 days notice ahead of an EGM, and then a further 40 days must lapse before an Annual General Meeting and an election can be held. The timing of the intervention from the Sports Ministry on 27 April meant that elections could not be held until mid-June at the earliest. 

SLC, however, petitioned that, since they had already received all nominations prior to the nomination submission deadline on 27 April, the 40-day waiting period could be bypassed and elections held by 31 May.  The reason SLC were so keen to hold elections by the end of May was down to the fact that that was when their term would end, and with no new board voted in prior to that an interim committee would be put in charge until fresh elections were held. While in reality this would have likely seen the present Executive Committee remaining in charge until the election date, it would have stripped them of the power to pass annual accounts at an AGM. SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala has previously spoken of his eagerness to adopt and pass the year’s audited accounts at this upcoming AGM.

It is expected that two camps headed by former SLC office bearers Nishantha Ranatunga and Jayantha Dharmadasa will be contesting against the incumbent board headed by Sumathipala.