The Election Commission is among the measures to boost confidence that the local body elections will be held next month The leader is involved. The democratic socialist state machine operates in three-pronged activities to stop it. What can the Election Commissioner do as long as the ballot boxes are with Ranil?
Elections for local councils announced by the chairman of the commission through the gazette that the elections will be held on March 9 have disappeared.
This election, which has been talked about in the style of “will happen but will not happen – no, will not happen but will happen”, has been announced by the Chairman of the Election Commission through a special gazette that will be held on April 25.
The government printing press will print the ballots. The security department has said that security will be provided for it. The Ministry of Power and Energy has assured to provide fuel for election work.
Neither the government nor the executive president said anything like this. Election Commission Chairman Nimal Punjihewathan announced. He is said to be acting with the intention of giving as much interference to the ruling party as possible before the Constituent Assembly appoints new leaders and members to the Election Commission. On the other hand, the opposition parties are skeptical that his actions are conducive to delaying the elections by the government.
According to some political circles, a decision given by the High Court on the 3rd has opened the door for local government elections, and thus Ranil’s government is in trouble.
It is the Parliament that enacts laws that are subject to the Constitution. Hence it is also called assembly. It is the primary function of the courts to enforce these laws without miscarriage of justice. So it seems well that the executive powers are exercised on the basis of the idea that the court decision does not control the actions of the Parliament.
The decision of the High Court on the 3rd was that the funds allocated for this election in the 2023 budget should not be prevented from being spent on it.
This means that the funds should be given to the election. It is true that funds have been earmarked for this in the budget. The budget is drawn up based on the proposed estimates. This does not mean that the allocated funds are put into a box with a name attached to it (as with commercial companies).
A good example can be given for this. From 1965 – 1970, the National Government led by Dudley Senanayake was in power. M. Thiruchelvam was the Home Minister representing the Tamil Rashuk Party and M. Sivashitambaram, the Member of Parliament from Udupitti representing the Tamil Congress, was the Deputy Speaker in this government.
Funds were allocated in all five budgets of the national government to establish a university for Tamils. The Tamil Raj Party asked for a Tamil University in Tirumala. Tamil Congress asked Hindu University in Jaffna. Dudley, who had said that he would give a university if both parties came together (knowing that this would not happen), made the university ‘Govinda’ because of the lack of unity among the Tamil leaders.
No one can ask what the funds are allocated for the university for Tamils. The reason for pointing this out here is that a budget is a blueprint of proposed expenditure. This is not unknown to the High Court. That is why the High Court Judges did not order the funds earmarked for the Local Government Elections to be released or to be released within a certain time frame.
Ranil’s stance can be understood from the fact that in the days following the High Court verdict, Ranil publicly stated that no elections would be held this year. Legal scholars argue that his declaration cannot be considered as contempt of court. This can be learned from the silence of the speaker of Tamil Nadu, Sumanthran, who is going to court for everything he has taken.
The Chairman of the Election Commission announces the election date in Thampat. He calls the officials of the related departments to the meeting. He issues orders to the District Magistrates. He advises that the government employees who are on paid leave to contest the elections can be given basic salary for an interim period.
But Ranil is staging a one-sided drama in the posture that none of these steps will change his decision. Based on this, three things can be described here as being carried out at different levels as if they were not related to each other. All these three make it clear that no one should count on the election for now.
1. The Electoral Demarcation Committee headed by Mahinda Deshapriya has been given time till 31st of this month to submit its report. The committee has prepared an interim report to reduce the number of 8,200 members of local councils across the country to 4,850. This number is reduced based on Ranil’s wish expressed several times. If the election is to be held on the basis of this number, the nomination papers will have to be re-solicited. Constituency boundaries will also be changed. This will take at least a year.
2. It will be made mandatory to reserve twenty-five percent for the youth based on the amendment act for the upcoming local council elections. The proposal submitted to the Legal Status Committee headed by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ajith Rajapaksa has been handed over to the Office of the Attorney General. The Legal Draftsman Department has taken this advice and 16 ministers, deputy ministers and members of parliament have given approval to include it in Bill No. 126.
3. As a very important point, it has been submitted to suspend the judgment given by the High Court on 3rd March regarding the election. Minister of State for Finance Sehan Semasinghe tabled the proposal on behalf of the government in Parliament last Friday. Opposition parties condemned the move as an exercise of privilege to question the court and its verdict.
Sehan Semasinghe mentioned that the privilege is used based on the right of the members of Parliament and requested the Deputy Speaker to give an order on this matter. The Deputy Speaker replied that the privilege of a Member of Parliament cannot be questioned by another Member and concluded by saying that the matter has been referred to the Privileges Committee. Now, it is not necessary to say how the Privileges Committee will decide.
So, it looks good on the lawn alone. The Ranil government will not conduct the elections for the local councils for now due to any reason. It can be said that this election will not take place for now, no matter how anyone digs the soil with their head. Maybe after the presidential election.
Eighteen crore four hundred and sixty lakh rupees paid by 80,720 candidates for this election will now go to the state coffers as free money.
It is the job of the Election Commission Chairman to fix the date for the election, announce it in the gazette and prepare the ballot papers. But the ballot boxes for the election are with Ranil. It’s the same question as last week – who’s going to win?