Sri Lankan politicians and voters lack political literacy: Commissioner General of Elections

• Proposes that election laws should be taught in schools at least from Grade 8  

By Yohan Perera  

Sri Lankan politicians and voters lack political literacy and this situation led to the rejection of over 200 nomination papers at this year’s Local Government election, Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake said yesterday.   

Speaking during a seminar jointly organized by the Election Commission and Sri Lanka Press Association (SLPA), Mr. Ratnayake said many parties and independent groups did not have knowledge on how to prepare nomination papers and on the procedures pertaining to handing over nomination papers.   

“Around one percent of the nomination papers were rejected as they were not signed by those who have the authority to do so under the law. Only General Secretaries of parties and a leader of an independent party are authorized to sign nomination papers. However, we allow the General Secretary of a party and a leader of an independent group to authorize someone from the party and the group to sign acknowledging that a difficult circumstance might pop up. However, proper procedures were not followed despite all these efforts made by the Election Commission,” he said.   

“Around 2 percent of the nomination papers were rejected as they were handed over by unauthorized persons. Around 70 percent of the rejection of nomination papers were due to errors in birth certificates. Some candidates came up with photocopies of birth certificates which cannot be accepted,” he added.   

Also he said some candidates and even the voters do not understand the significance of a Local Government poll. “Some candidates include even pictures of dead politicians on their campaign material. National figures cannot be drawn into a local poll,” he said in this regard.   

Furthermore Mr. Ratnayake proposed that election laws should be taught in schools at least from Grade 8.   

Office Bearers of SLPA, officials from the Election Commission and other distinguished guests including journalists were present at the seminar.