13 December 2022 06:34 am Views - 226
By Sandun A Jayasekera
The Election Commission (EC) will issue the gazette notification calling nominations to elect 8,327 members for 24 Municipal Councils, 41 Urban Councils and 276 Pradeshiya Sabhas within 5 working days of the final week of December, its Commissioner General S.G. Punchihewa said yesterday.
“The Election Commission after a lengthy discussion last week decided to call nominations for Local Government polls between 26th – 30th of December this year,” Mr. Punchihewa told Daily Mirror yesterday.
Nominations will be accepted for local government polls in mid-January and election will be held in late-February 2023 according to the provisions of the Local Government Bodies Election Ordinance 2017.
The section 26 of the ordinance says that the Local Government polls have to be held between five weeks to seven weeks after the close of tendering of nominations. The nominations will be accepted by district returning officers from registered political parties and independent groups on the 14th day of notice of nominations until 12.00 noon of the following day.
Asked whether LG polls would be monitored by the foreign observers, Mr. Punchihewa said no request has been forwarded to the EC up to now for permission to invite foreign election observers from the PAFFREL or any other local election monitoring NGO but added if and when such request is made, the EC would consider it positively.
Meanwhile, dismissing speculations about the government’s covert attempts to postpone LG polls, Chief Opposition Whip and senior vice president of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Mr. Lakshman Kiriella said even the Executive President has no power to postpone elections.
Only way to delay or postpone the LG polls is to obtain a Supreme Court order to that effect or pass a Local Government Authorities Election Ordinance afresh replacing the current ordinance passed in 2017.
“The Supreme Court has in many instances ruled that the government or the EC have no right to delay or postpone the polls and violate the fundamental rights of the people,” Mr. Kiriella stressed.
The 2022 electoral register that has just been completed by the EC will be used for the upcoming local government polls. The total number of registered voters eligible to vote are 16,692,398.