Can’t hold on to law books with regard to the election - Poll monitors

Though there are issues which are still to be resolved with regard to the general election, one cannot go into extremes and hold on to law books but should take a middle path with regard to the polls, Executive Director of a leading polls monitoring organisation said yesterday.

Executive Director People's Action for Free and Fair Election, Rohana Hettiarachchi said one should take a middle path when it comes to holding of elections.

" COVID-19 is a global pandemic and is an exceptional situation. Therefore politicians should not open law books and argue on law points at this moment" Mr. Hettiarachchi said. " However there are issues which has to be resolved. Government cannot spend funds on their own without Parliament's approval. One could challenge state spending in courts" he added. Also he said the election commission does not face a confusion anymore with the decision of Supreme Courts.

However he said the election commission should seek the opinion of the health authorities before fixing a new date for the election.

Former Governor and former Executive Director Campaign for Free and Fair Election Keerthi Tennekoon also said there are issues to be resolved with regard to the polls despite the dismissal of petitions filed against the election date.

"The gazette notification issued by the President March 2, 2020 became defunct yesterday. Neither President nor Election Commission has provisions to decide on when the new Parliament could be convened. Besides many who uses postal votes won't get the opportunity of voting as many have not registered yet. Another issue is using schools as polling stations and counting centres. Besides there's is an issue as to how the government is going to spend for the poll without Parliament" he said. (Yohan Perera)