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Elections: EC to get health certificate to go ahead
The Elections Commission (EC) tasked with the responsibility of holding a General (parliamentary) Election in due course will seek written advice from health authorities on the period and the manner in which the country-wide poll should be held, a senior EC official told the Sunday Times yesterday.
However, a statement from the President’s Office last night said the threat posed from the coronavirus was still not over and called on the people to strictly follow guidelines issued by the health sector.
The statement called on the people to bear the inconveniences caused until the health authorities determine that the coronavirus threat was fully eliminated.
The polls and related issues are due to be discussed at a meeting tomorrow between the EC and the health authorities together with members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
The official said the safety guidelines they were seeking would include arrangements on setting up of polling booths, placing staff, polling agents, precautions for voters and guidelines for the campaign.
The move by the EC to seek “written advice” from the health authorities comes in the wake of pressure on the Commission to fix a date for the holding of an election for a new Parliament with the old Parliament having been dissolved on March 2. According to the Constitution, an election must be held and Parliament must meet within three months of the dissolution (before June 2) – unless due to exigencies that would require constitutional remedial action.
The EC’s move comes in the wake of increasing pressure from the Government to the Commission to fix a date for the election.
While President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said fixing a date is the responsibility of the Commission, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa issued a statement yesterday saying the EC could not indefinitely postpone the date and that it was bound by law to fix a date.
It said the EC must first fix the date and then take up for discussion any outstanding issues without speculating “as to what may or may not happen weeks and months into the future”.
The EC earlier fixed April 25 for the holding of the poll, but later postponed it due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic without fixing a new date. The Prime Minister’s statement said the Government’s efforts to control the virus was a “success”.
It pointed out that 11 of the 25 districts had no victims of the virus, and only five districts had a high incidence of patients.