Former National Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya has called for new legislation to allow Sri Lankan workers — both expatriate and local — to vote outside their home districts, and to bar unqualified individuals from contesting public office.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Deshapriya said a government-appointed committee had submitted a report on enabling voting for Sri Lankan expatriates and migrant workers. He noted that during multiple discussions with the Election Commission, the proposal had been judged effective in principle but impractical to implement because of logistical and verification challenges.
The former Chairman pressed instead for a more immediate domestic reform: a system letting local workers cast ballots from their place of employment when they cannot travel home on polling day.
“There must be a system where local workers can cast their ballots either the day before or on election day, from their workplace instead of travelling to their hometown,” Deshapriya said. “During the war, displaced persons were permitted to vote from wherever they resided, rather than returning to the North. A similar law could be introduced for workers unable to travel home due to job commitments.”
He also called for legislation to prevent unqualified individuals from entering public office, urging the government to act without delay.
The intervention comes as the Election Commission and Parliament are weighing several long-pending reforms, including the stalled provincial council elections and overseas voter registration. Sri Lanka’s roughly 1.5 million migrant workers in the Gulf and East Asia have no mechanism to vote in national elections, and turnout among internal migrants — workers in the apparel, plantation and tourism sectors who live away from their registered homes — is consistently lower than the national average.
Source: Newswire.
