Members of the Election Commission have been summoned to appear on Wednesday before the Parliamentary Special Committee tasked with recommending the electoral system under which Provincial Council elections should be held, NewsFirst reported.
The Election Commission said it had been notified to attend the committee, which is chaired by Minister Vijitha Herath and has previously met on several occasions to investigate the issue and prepare proposals. The Special Committee’s mandate covers both how the polls should be conducted and the legislative reforms required to unblock them.
The Attorney General’s Department was also summoned before the same committee recently, and was instructed to submit a report on the legal obstacles to holding the Provincial Council elections. That brief mirrors the select-committee track flagged earlier in the cycle, which similarly identified outstanding legislative questions.
Provincial Council elections have not been held in Sri Lanka since 2017–2019, and the indefinite postponement has been one of the longest-running democratic-accountability issues in the cycle. Election Commission Chairman R.M.A.L. Rathnayake told an event in mid-May the commission expected polls within a year. SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella has demanded that the polls be held without further delay.
Source: NewsFirst.
