Sri Lanka's Supreme Court orders govt to hold long-postponed local elections soon

Colombo: Slamming the Sri Lankan government led by President Ranil Wickremesinghe for violating the fundamental rights of citizens, the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered it to hold the long-postponed local council elections as soon as possible.

The ruling by a five-member bench of the apex court came in response to four fundamental rights petitions filed by the Opposition and civil society groups. Elections for over 340 local councils were postponed since early last year.

The court found that the members of the independent election commission and President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as finance minister, had violated the fundamental rights of citizens by failing to hold the elections.

The local elections, initially scheduled for March 9 last year, were not held due to the Treasury's claim that it couldn't fund the election expenditure amidst the ongoing economic crisis. However, the court rejected the argument, stating that the Treasury had not provided sufficient evidence to support its claim of a total inability to hold the election.

"Other than referring to the economic crisis and difficulties faced, the affidavit of the secretary to the Treasury and Ministry of Finance has not averred sufficient material to indicate a total inability to hold the election," the court said.

In an interim order, the court directed the Treasury to allocate the necessary funds for the local council election, which had already been budgeted for. The court emphasised that the local council election must be conducted by the elections commission without disrupting the preparations for other elections, including the presidential election scheduled for September 21.

Meanwhile, President Wickremesinghe said he does not regret his decision to postpone the election.

Addressing a public gathering at a Colombo suburb, Wickremesinghe said there was no time to get involved in holding the local election as every hour was crucial to him for steering the island’s bankrupt economy’s turnaround.

“Inability to hold the election due to dedicating that time to ensure the right to live is not regretted. I respect the people’s right to live as much as I respect the right to vote,” he said.

“Without cooking gas, medicine, food and fuel, people were unable to have day-to-day living. Over the last two years I dedicated myself to that task,” Wickremesinghe, who is contesting the September 21 election, emphasised.