Election duties suspended temporarily

By Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya   

In the wake of the decision to postpone the casting of postal voting indefinitely, the Commissioner General of Elections has sent a letter to all District Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers with a list of instructions about the steps taken ahead, in connection with the Local Government elections.  

Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake has informed them to function normal office hours from Monday (20) and to temporarily suspend the overtime duties for election duties.  

All District Election Offices including the Head Office should be closed during weekends and public holidays and the Election Commissioner General’s prior approval must be obtained if it is necessary to open the office on weekends or holidays for any special duty.  

The services of currently employed casual workers and retired officers terminated after office hours with effect from February 17. Also, the staff officers temporarily assigned from other government departments/offices for election duties should be released to their respective workplaces.  Ratnayake also informed that all vehicles that were obtained from various institutions for staff transportation should be temporarily released to the relevant institutions with immediate effect.  

However, the Commissioner General informed that instructions will be issued with regard to police officers deployed for security of the office and arrangements should be made to obtain police security until then.  

Postal voting for the upcoming local government election, which is scheduled for March 09, was supposed to be held on February 22, 23, 24 and 28.  
However, the Election Commission has postponed postal voting until further notice because the commission has not received the postal voting ballots from the Department of Government Printing on time.