News
EC confident of LG polls going ahead
View(s):By Sandun Jayawardana
Despite various difficulties, the Election Commission (EC) is still confident that there will be no postponement of the 2023 local government election scheduled for March 9.
This week, the EC wrote to the Treasury asking for the release of Rs. 800 million for initial expenses related to the conduct of the polls. The Commission estimates that it will require Rs. 3 billion for its work up until Election Day, EC Chairman Nimal Punchihewa told the Sunday Times. “Overall, we believe we can manage the election with Rs. 8 billion,” he added, pointing out it will still be lower than the Rs. 10 billion that had been allocated to the EC by Parliament via Budget 2023 to conduct the LG Election.
Mr Punchihewa also claimed that the EC had yet to receive any official confirmation regarding the reported resignation of EC member P.S.M Charles. This was after reports said that Mrs. Charles had tendered her resignation to President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday. “We too only learned about it through media reports but we are yet to receive a resignation letter or official confirmation of any kind,” he revealed.
Even if Mrs. Charles has resigned, the resignation of one member of the five-member EC will not affect its work, Mr Punchihewa remarked.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Council (CC) which met for the first time on Wednesday discussed about the constitution of the independent commissions, including the EC. The CC agreed to call for applications from interested and qualified individuals through a newspaper advertisement. A period of two weeks from the date of advertisement will be given to furnish such applications.
Election monitors too believe that the election is likely to go ahead as scheduled unless there is an intervention by Court or by Parliament.
Rohana Hettiarachchi, Executive Director of the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), said he was “fully confident” that the election will go ahead as planned.
The EC has also drafted regulations related to campaign financing in the Regulation of Election Expenditure Bill recently passed by Parliament, with Rs. 20 being set as the ceiling that a candidate can spend on each voter. Given this development, Mr Hettiarachchi said it was no longer possible for someone to successfully mount a court challenge claiming that the EC was not acting in accordance with the new law.
Many government ministers and MPs have repeatedly claimed there were no funds to hold the election. The Treasury though, has so far officially not said that it does not have the funds, pointed out Manjula Gajanayake, Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies. “In this scenario, the Treasury’s reply to the letter sent by the EC asking for initial funding will be crucial,” Mr Gajanayake noted.
He predicted that the Treasury will eventually release the funds as funding for the LG polls had already been allocated through the Budget.
There will however, have to be a large-scale awareness campaign launched among both candidates and voters regarding the spending limits set by the new Regulation of Election Expenditure Bill, he asserted. There may still be some loopholes in the new Act, allowing candidates and parties to work around some of the regulations to gain an unfair advantage, he further said.
The Sunday Times also spoke to several candidates who are contesting the LG polls in various local bodies.
The upcoming election is not a normal local government election, former Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Mujibur Rahuman said. Mr Rahuman recently stepped down from his Parliamentary seat to contest as the SJB’s Mayoral candidate for Colombo. “We are treating this election as a referendum on the government. Our aim is to show that they no longer have the people’s mandate.”
As an ex-MP who represented the Colombo District for seven years, and as someone who was born in Colombo, educated there and still lives in the city, Mr Rahuman claimed he has an in-depth understanding of the issues faced by the people of the city. “There are two types of Colombo. One is steeped in luxury but the other, larger part has many fundamental problems, including unemployment, especially among the youth, prevalence of drugs and poor living standards. I believe I can do a lot change that situation,” he said.
Incumbent Mayor Rosy Senanayake is contesting the election as the Mayoral candidate of the United National Party (UNP). She said she is contesting the election as she aims to fulfill the duties that were entrusted to her by the people who voted her into power in 2018.
The National People’s Power (NPP) sees the polls as the first step on the road to a Parliamentary election, former MP Sunil Handunnetti stressed. Mr Handunnetti is among the NPP’s candidates on the party list for the Matara Municipal Council election. “Both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Cabinet, who were given the people’s mandate in 2019 and 2020, resigned. The current Parliament does not reflect the people’s mandate,” he insisted.
Some parties have pointed out that many of the NPP’s heavyweights such as Mr Handunnetti are not directly contesting the polls but are on the nomination lists as additional candidates. “There’s no point in me contesting from a ward and being elected to the Municipal Council. Being on the list allows me to travel to every ward and campaign on behalf of the party. Our aim is the victory of the party rather than the individual,” Mr Handunnetti stated.
It will be a lie to say that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) had not suffered a considerable setback due to the events of the past two years, acknowledged Moratuwa Mayor Saman Lal Fernando. “But the setback does not mean we have no path to victory. I am still confident that when the election comes, our party will have the largest number of members in local government bodies.”
He claimed there was nothing new he needed to do as Mayor of Moratuwa if he is reelected. “We have done much to resolve issues in Moratuwa, including waste management. The only thing we need to do is to further develop what we have already done.”
It will be unwise for voters to only treat the local government election as a solution to a national issue, opined Leonard Karunaratne, who is contesting from the SJB for the Kesbewa Urban Council. “I understand that voters are disillusioned to the point of saying ‘they are all the same.’ But that is not a good attitude. You still need to elect people who understand how to provide basic services to your area.”
He claimed the danger of voting for a local election based solely on a national issue was evidenced by what happened at the last local government election of 2018. “Back then, the SLPP campaign called on voters to cast their ballots to make Mahinda Rajapaksa the Prime Minister. In the end, people voted with that in mind and we had many unsuitable people being elected to head local bodies. Voters should not make such a mistake again and should vote for people who can actually deliver for their local area,” he stressed.
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