{"id":101292,"date":"2020-04-18T16:22:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T23:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101292"},"modified":"2020-04-18T16:22:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T23:22:49","slug":"coronavirus-pandemic-and-the-postponed-parliamentary-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/18\/coronavirus-pandemic-and-the-postponed-parliamentary-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus pandemic and the postponed Parliamentary election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mahinda Rajapaksa <\/strong>Prime Minister<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

MEDIA RELEASE<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coronavirus pandemic hit\ncountries like the USA, India and Bangladesh in a situation where their\neconomies had been experiencing strong growth for years. In contrast, Sri Lanka\nhas had to face this crisis in a state of economic ruin. During the five years\nof yahapalana misrule from 2015 to 2019, our debt burden increased by 71%, the\nRupee lost one third of its value and economic growth had plummeted to 2.7%. Furthermore,\nthough we had won the presidency in November 2019 and formed a government, we\ndid not have a majority in Parliament and were not able to get a vote on\naccount passed even to pay off the previous government\u2019s debts to suppliers of\nfertilizer and medicine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The financial powers vested in\nthe President under Article 150(3) of the Constitution is the only saving grace\nin this situation. It was with all these debilitating disadvantages that we had\nto face the Coronavirus pandemic. After the first Coronavirus patient was\ndiscovered on 11 March, we introduced a raft of measures to control the disease\nincluding early detection, isolation and treatment of patients, quarantine for\nthose exposed to risk, the tracing of patients\u2019 contacts and\nsocial distancing measures. An\noperation like this has not been seen in our lifetimes. Curfews lasting for\nweeks on end had to be imposed to prevent the spread of the disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People unable to go out of\ntheir homes had to be supplied with essentials like foodstuffs, medicines, and\neven cash throughout the country. Aid had to be provided to low income earners.\nThe produce of paddy and vegetable farmers and fishermen had to be bought to\nkeep the production process going. The fact that all these tasks were dealt\nwith simultaneously at short notice is nothing less than a managerial miracle. Today,\nthe whole world acknowledges Sri Lanka\u2019s success in containing the coronavirus\npandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President\u2019s leadership in\nthis regard has to be commended. Our government doctors, nurses, and health\nservice workers have come to the attention of the entire world. The skill and\ndedication of the intelligence services in tracing the contacts of patients, the\nefficiency of the armed forces in implementing quarantine and lockdown measures\nhas prevented the spread of the disease. The Police, and government officials\nat all levels have all contributed to the success of the anti-Coronavirus\ncampaign. Today, our country is one of the safest places to be in the whole\nworld. We have achieved this despite an economy that had been driven into the\nground, and an unpatriotic and opportunistic opposition bent on undermining our\ngovernment at every turn.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition leader tried to\nsabotage the anti-coronavirus campaign at the very outset by personally\nencouraging protests against the quarantine process. Then they tried to undermine\ngovernment services including the health service with the argument that the President\nhad no power to allocate funds for government services after the dissolution of\nParliament. Now they say that the Gazette dissolving Parliament should be\nrescinded the as the new parliament has to meet before the 2nd<\/sup> of\nJune, and the parliamentary election cannot be held before that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The yahapalana government delayed\nlocal government elections by nearly three years. Their attempt to postpone\nthat election indefinitely by moving courts failed only because the Elections\nCommission declared they would hold elections to the institutions that were not\ninvolved in litigation. With just days to go for the dissolution of the\nprovincial councils in 2017, the yahapalana government changed the provincial\ncouncils elections system to prevent elections from taking place. When the\nAttorney General held that a two thirds majority in Parliament was required to\npass that amendment, they bartered policy for votes in the corridors of\nParliament to obtain the required majority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of that\nunprincipled political horse trading, the local government elections law which\nwas passed on 25 August 2017 has 40% proportional representation whereas the\nprovincial councils elections law passed four weeks later has 50% proportional\nrepresentation! Sri Lanka is also the only democratic country in the world\nwhere political parties petitioned the Supreme Court to get the declaration of\na parliamentary election annulled. The present scramble to have the\nparliamentary elections put off is a continuation of that deplorable past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things have to come back to\nnormal sooner or later. In eleven of the 25 administrative districts, there\nhave been no coronavirus patients at all. In another seven districts, there\nhave been only one or two patients, and five to seven patients in two more\ndistricts. Only five districts have a high incidence of coronavirus patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 2 March the President\ndissolved Parliament and fixed 25 April for the poll and 14 May for the first\nmeeting of the new Parliament. Ten days later, when the first Coronavirus\npatient was found, the President did not have the power to postpone the poll.\nUnder Section 24(3) of the Parliamentary Elections Act No: 1 of 1981, when the\npoll cannot be held on the day fixed by the President, the Elections Commission\nis mandatorily required to fix another day for the poll. They have no power to\npostpone the poll without fixing another date. Such mandatory legal\nrequirements cannot be ignored on the basis of speculation as to what may or\nmay not happen weeks and months into the future. The Elections Commission should\nfirst fulfill its duties under Section 24(3) and thereafter take up for\ndiscussion any outstanding issues.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister MEDIA RELEASE The Coronavirus pandemic hit countries like the USA, India and Bangladesh in a situation where their economies had been experiencing strong growth for years. In contrast, Sri Lanka has had to face this crisis in a state of economic ruin. During the five years of yahapalana misrule from 2015 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mahinda-rajapaksa","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}