26 September 2016 08:18 am
However, he said he could take steps for conducting it before April New Year, if the Government addressed legal shortcomings this year.
Mr. Deshapriya said the delimitation process had to be completed in addition to ironing out lacunas in the present Local Government law for the polls to be conducted.
The Government decided to redraw the boundaries of some electoral wards created during the previous rule.
A committee headed by senior civil servant Asoka Peiris was appointed for the task. The committee is expected to present the report on new delimitations by October 15. Initially, it was expected to be ready by August 15.
“Once the report is out, the subject Minister has to announce the number of wards and members to be elected in a Gazette notification. This is a prerequisite for conducting the election,” Mr. Deshapriya said.
Besides, he said there were serious lacunas in the present law, and those should be corrected by enacting a new law in Parliament.
“If the legal ground is cleared, we can conduct the election within the first quarter of the next year,” he said.
“However, there is no possibility for the elections to be conducted this year. We need at least 90 days to conclude the election process after declaration. If it is declared even tomorrow, we cannot go for it this year.
“Alongside, the GCE Ordinary Level Examinations will be conducted in December. It is impossible then for us to have the elections during the period,” he said.