- Claims that Govt. won’t hold the election soon
The main Opposition party, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) is planning to hold a series of protests this month together with all other political parties of the opposition party, demanding that the Local Government (LG) elections be held as soon as possible, it is learnt.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, SJB mayoral candidate for the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) and former MP Mujibur Rahman said: “The Government led by President and Finance Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe does not yet seem ready to release the money needed to hold the LG elections. Therefore, we are currently planning to organise a series of massive protests together with all the opposition political parties. We hope to involve all the political parties that represent Parliament and those that do not, including the NPP in these protests.”
He said that the SJB is planning to discuss the matter with the relevant political parties in the coming days. He also said that although the President and the Government members have constantly called on the Opposition political parties including the SJB to join them in formulating policies favourable to the country, any policy formulation can only be done by holding elections on time and providing necessary facilities, mainly the financial provisions for the same.
“Even now, many parties and groups of the Opposition are working together to force the Government to hold the LG elections, but we hope to put a huge pressure on the Government through these protests. We also request the people to do whatever they can do within the democratic framework to get the LG elections regardless of political parties. It is now very clear that the President and the Government will not facilitate this any time soon.” added Rahman.
Although the LG elections were scheduled to be held on 9 March, the Finance Ministry and the General Treasury had not released the required funds to the Elections Commission (EC). The EC then rescheduled the LG elections to 25 April, and the postal voting to 28, 29, 30 and 31 March and today (3), but the required funds are yet to be released. Against this backdrop, the EC postponed the postal voting and many parties have speculated that the date of the LG election, 25 April, will also have to be postponed.
Source By themorning.lk
