AMN
The Election Commission of Sri Lanka has said that 25th of April would be the most suitable date for the Local Government Elections.
The Commission has instructed the Returning Officers that since the LG polls cannot be conducted on 9th of March due to unexpected reasons, the most suitable date will be in next month.
Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the Parliament last month had dismissed the reports of 9th of March to be the date of polls and added that no official decision was taken on this matter. The president had claimed that the five-member election commission was not unanimous on the conduct of the polls.
Opposition parties had been critical of the government and claimed that the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Party did not want the election to go ahead fearing a humiliating defeat. Protests were held in Colombo by opposition National People’s Power last month in which one candidate from NPP had died.
The polls to elect councillors to 340 local councils for a four-year term have been postponed since March last year due to the ongoing economic crisis. The government has indicated repeatedly that the time was unsuitable to hold the election, given the economic crisis.