Keerthi Tennakoon on general election: Accepted nominations breach Republic Holiday Act

• It is not possible to accept nominations on March 17, 18 and 19 as per Section 10 (2) of Republic Holiday Act

The Elections Commission (EC) should call for fresh nominations for the general election because the ones called for in March are illegal as they were accepted on public holidays, former Executive Director of Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CaFFE) Keerthi Tennakoon said yesterday.  

“Fresh nominations should be called before allocating preferential numbers to candidates. Nominations were called in on March 15 after COVID-19 started to spread in the country. Public holidays were declared on March 16 as per the Republic Holiday Act of 1971. It is not possible to accept nominations on March 17, 18 and 19 as per Section 10 (2) of the Act. Several political parties handed over nominations on dates which they could not as per the law. It is questionable as to whether the election could be held with illegal nominations in a country where nominations are rejected even when there is a spelling error in nomination papers. Anyone could refer the matter to court and obtain redress,” he said.    

• It is questionable as to whether the election could be held with illegal nominations are rejected for spelling errors