The holding of local elections in Sri Lanka hangs by a thread after the announcement of the electoral body

4 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The holding of local elections in Sri Lanka is hanging by a thread after the Election Commission has announced the opening of the registration period for future candidates while, at the same time, a petition is pending in the High Court to annul this decision.

Following the Commission’s decision to open a call for candidates from January 18, a retired colonel has asked the Sri Lankan Supreme Court to annul that decision due to the economic crisis facing the country and alleging that the holding of the elections would lead to a greater disaster.

Likewise, the petitioner has alleged that the Electoral Commission would have to allocate at least 10,000 million rupees to carry out the elections, according to the annual budget, as reported by the ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper on Wednesday.

In the context of all this confusion, the opposition parties, especially Samagi Jana Balawegaya, have accused the government of delaying the elections fearing that the ruling Sri Lankan Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) will lose support, since they control most of the local governments after the 2018 elections.

“There is no need to hold local government elections in a hurry,” defended, for his part, the secretary general of the United National Party (UNP), Palitha Range Bandara, who governs alongside Ranil Wickremesinghe’s SLPP, as reported by the newspaper ‘Daily News’.

Wickremesinghe, who was appointed president by Parliament on July 20 after the escape of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has given the country a certain sense of stability after addressing the shortage of water and fuel, the main reasons why the population decided to occupy the streets. , although it has not managed to calm social demands.