{"id":101798,"date":"2020-05-01T02:06:57","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T09:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101798"},"modified":"2020-05-01T14:39:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T21:39:20","slug":"who-has-the-power-to-declare-elections-sri-lankas-president-or-elections-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/05\/01\/who-has-the-power-to-declare-elections-sri-lankas-president-or-elections-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Who has the power to declare Elections: Sri Lanka\u2019s President or Elections Commission?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The country is facing a situation it has never before had to face.\nPlucking Articles from the Constitution and crying to the Supreme Court without\nhelping deal with the situation, shows how bankrupt the politicians making a\nfuror are. It is they who are violating the spirit of democracy. This is no\ntime to be holding the law books. This is a time for understanding. Certainly\nelections must be held. A country has to have a government. But, this situation\ncalls for looking at the scenario without political bias or political agendas.\nWith the likelihood of COVID-19 continuing for some years, given that Sri Lanka\nhas only 7 deaths, no ICU patients and no serious casualties, the best option\nwould be a staggered election over 4 days. How that is to be done is the job of\nthe Election Commission. However,\nElection Commission should not try to do the job of the President, the Health Service\nor the Armed Forces.<\/strong> It is the\nPresident who can decide date for an island-wide election, not the Election\nCommission,<\/strong> The EC can only change the polling date of a district \u2018due to\nan unforeseen situation\u2019 (24\/3 Parliamentary Elections Act)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The People (via Article 4) is\nSupreme. The Executive, Legislative & Judiciary are only functioning under\ndelegated powers given by the People. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President dissolved Parliament\nby Gazette\nExtra Ordinary No. 2165\/8 dated 2 March 2020\n& declared elections for 25th<\/sup> April and convening of New\nParliament on 14th<\/sup> May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the President dissolve Parliament\n\u2013 Yes, under Article 33(2)(c) \/ Article 70 (1), 70(2), 70(5)(a), 70(5)(c),\n70(7) as Head of State.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 70(6) allows a 4month window for new Parliament to convene.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On 21st<\/sup> March – Upholding President\u2019s\nproclamation, the EC published Gazette\nExtraordinary No 2167\/19 quoting 24 (1) (a) and (c) of Parliamentary\nElections Act fixing polls for 25th<\/sup> April.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 20th<\/sup> April \u2013 EC published Gazette Extraordinary No 2172\/3\nissuing 20th<\/sup> June as the new date for an island-wide election. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does the Election Commission have a mandate to declare island-wide polls or does he have mandate to only cancel vote for a district and reschedule date for that district alone?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Election Commissioner by\nmandate 24\/3 of Parliamentary Elections Act can only change date of a district \u2013\nNOT ALL DISTRICTS. Therefore, the EC has no mandate to declare island-wide\nelections on 20 June. Technically, he was bound to have held island-wide\nelections on 25 April as he did not declare on 19 March which district poll he\nwas cancelling and having that district only go for vote on 20 June. But using\n24\/3, he can conduct a staggered election over 4 days dividing the districts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can a Parliament that has been dissolved reconvene on its own?\nNO,<\/strong> only the Executive President can summon it.\nAttempting to reconvene without the authority of the President is committing a\nviolation of attempting to usurp powers of the President. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can Speaker of the Old Parliament reconvene a Parliament that\nhas been dissolved? NO,<\/strong> the Speaker of the Old\nParliament has no role as Speaker once Parliament is dissolved. He has no\npowers to reconvene Parliament (Article 42(2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\nthe President need Parliament to approve funding? NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Articles 150 and 151 allows the\nPresident to use Consolidated Fund and Contingencies Fund to meet Public\nFinance for which the present Minister of Finance will have to be accountable\nto the new Parliament.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does the Opposition have a case to demand reconvening of Old\nParliament? NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all know the debacles\ncommitted under the Old Parliament \u2013 scores of Bills based without debate\/lack\nof majority\/denying people to file FR\/and allegations that what was finalized\nat Committee Stage was not what was passed. Some Bills were passed based on SOUND. Former Speaker has much to\nanswer fo<\/strong>r.<\/strong> The Old Parliament\nfailed to provide compensation for all Salawa victims, all Meethotamulla\nvictims or all Easter Sunday victims. The people have no confidence that\nreconvening Old Parliament in the face of COVID-19 pandemic will provide any\nrelief to the people given their record of incompetence and lack of ability to\nserve the People. 97 foreign intel warnings, even giving names of venues and details\nof suicide bombers resulted in no action to prevent Easter Sunday mass murder.\nThis sums up the level of incompetence of the Old Parliament. Everyone simply\npassed blame to the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the real objective in Opposition demanding reconvening Old\nParliament?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it to cancel nominations of 12th<\/sup>\nMarch which concluded on 19th<\/sup> March where UNP and SJB filed separate\nnominations. Do they now wish to have nominations cancelled in order to contest\nas only UNP? This is likely the main reason for the tamasha over reconvening\nOld Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can a FR be filed against the President\u2019s Proclamation of 2nd<\/sup>\nMarch?<\/strong> Yes, already Maithri Gunaratne (contesting from Sajiths\u2019 SJB) son has\nfiled FR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the\nSupreme Court demand the Old Parliament to be reconvened? NO, the Supreme Court cannot force the Executive President to\nsummon a dissolved Parliament. The Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to force\nthe President to summon the Old Parliament. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court knows it has no jurisdiction to demand the President\nto reconvene the Old Parliament.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court also know the President has powers to dissolve\nParliament again & set another date for island-wide elections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, will the Supreme Court wish to be party to a political drama\nin the midst of a global pandemic?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this the time to be plucking Article 70(5) (a) accusing the\nPresident of violating it claiming he has to reconvene Old Parliament if he\ndissolved Parliament on 2nd<\/sup> March in view of time lapse? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those making the allegations completely\nignore that Sri Lanka\u2019s 1st<\/sup> covid-19 case was discovered only on 11th<\/sup>\nMarch and 1st<\/sup> death was on 28th<\/sup> March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Election Commissioner cancelled the President\u2019s declared\nisland-wide election date on 19 March using provision 24\/3 of the Parliamentary\nElections Act No. 1 of 1981 \u2013 but the question is CAN HE CANCEL ISLAND-WIDE\nelection date?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t he by this very provision able to ONLY CANCEL VOTING in a\nPOLLING DISTRICT?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does the Election Commission realize their faux pas made on 19th<\/sup>\nMarch?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this the time to be quoting Article 10(2) (b) (1)\nof the Parliamentary Election Act against the President claiming he has\nviolated it because in accepting Election Commissioners 20th<\/sup> June\ndate as Island-wide date, Parliamentary Election Act requires polling date to\nbe not less than 5 weeks and not more than 7 weeks from closing date of\nnominations (19th<\/sup> March) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it really fair for the\nOpposition to be this unsupportive at such a critical juncture? They are well\naware that in any normal circumstances, all constitutional provisions have been\nfollowed to the word. It is because of this precarious situation the country\nand the world is in, that everyone has to think of alternate measures. Let us\nremind the Opposition, that with no terrorism, no country calamity, it delayed\nlocal government elections for almost 3 years and even went so far as to amend\nActs to suit its advantage. This Government has not done any of the\nquestionable acts that the Opposition as Govt committed during its rule in the\nOld Parliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the ruckus by the Opposition\nis simply to cancel nominations so that Sajith will have to say cherio to SJB\ncontesting alone and contest as a UNF alliance with UNP-TNA-SLMC-ACMC-JVP\n(usual culprits) so be it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 years of failures since 2015\nand inability to stop mass murder via gun inspite of warnings is more than\nenough for people to fear yahapalana handling of a virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, with Supreme Court petitioned,\nhopefully we will not see foreign envoys seated to influence the judges as in\nOct2018 and there is little chances of foreign trips on offer too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, without allowing another court case debacle, the\nbest option now is for the President to use Article 33 (d) of the Constitution\nand consult the health services re impact of people going to vote, cancel 2nd<\/sup>\nMarch proclamation and 20th<\/sup> June election date and issue a fresh\nproclamation with new Island-wide election date and ask Election Commission to\nconduct elections over 4 days. There is no requirement to reconvene the Old Parliament\nand only a fresh island-wide date is being issued with a new date to convene\nthe New Parliament. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opposition may feel jubilant\nthat its objective in cancelling the 9th<\/sup> March nominations has been successful;\nlittle do they realize whatever bandwagon they contest under this team are dreaming if they think that\npeople have faith to place their lives in the hands of UNP-TNA-SLMC-ACMC and\nJVP again. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people will only lose more faith in the Opposition the\nmoment it starts filing FR against the dissolution and demanding the\nreconvening of Parliament. Leaving all law books, Articles aside, the People\nwere fed up with the Yahapalana Govt and it is high time they woke up to this\nreality. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By making a political nuisance of\nthemselves, they will only be reducing their vote base further. Of course the\nbloc vote will not change but with the manner the current President, together\nwith the Public Sector, Health Services, Armed Forces & Police are handling\nthe COVID-19 situation despite immeasurable difficulties, the voters know that\nif yahaplana govt and its alliances were in power Sri Lanka would be holding\nthe record for the highest COVID19 deaths in South Asia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success of Sri Lanka\u2019s covid-19 has been repeatedly attributed to the magnanimous efforts put by the intelligence services, all of whom were hounded and imprisoned under yahapalana rule and if yahapalana was in power during COVID19 \u2013 people will not need to imagine the situation in Sri Lanka they will be experiencing it first-hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The country is facing a situation it has never before had to face. Plucking Articles from the Constitution and crying to the Supreme Court without helping deal with the situation, shows how bankrupt the politicians making a furor are. It is they who are violating the spirit of democracy. This is no time to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101798","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\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}