Many party leaders say ‘no’ to June 20 polls - EC source

• EC is awaiting the ruling of the Supreme Court

By Sandun A. Jayasekera

Political party leaders have told the Elections Commission (EC) that they were not ready to go for an election at this time owing to various reasons, a senior source of the EC said yesterday.  

The EC had met party leaders on Tuesday to discuss the Parliamentary polls scheduled to be held on June 20.  
“90% of the party representatives were not in favour of holding the election on June 20, and said they have no issues if and when the COVID-19 threat is eliminated,” he said on condition of anonymity.  

“The EC is awaiting the ruling of the Supreme Court. The dilemma we have at the EC is that the allocation of preferential numbers to candidates and decide the days for postal voting. Both are not possible as the EC have to give a minimum of 5 to 7 weeks for the election campaign,” he stressed.  

With the time goes by, the situation tightens further and therefore it is now clear that an election on June 20 is not possible, he said.