Former Minister and Member of Parliament Prof. G. L Pieris have stated there is a court judgment which says that if elections are to be postponed, a referendum should be held to decide that. Therefore, he stated that elections must be held before March 20. He said this addressing a press briefing held today (2).
G. L. Pieris went on to say that the Supreme Court has issued several decisions concerning local government elections. Mr. G. L. Peiris also stated that the election must be held by the end of February or the beginning of March in order to establish the 340 local governments across the country by March 20th.
According to the professor, it is not a correct statement if the Election Commission declares that if the Parliament passes a resolution to postpone the Local Government Elections.
Mr. Peiris emphasised that if the government accepts the absurd argument that there is no money to hold elections, the country’s democracy will be destroyed.
He stated that the government prints and spends trillions of dollars every day without hesitation, and that if the current successor president does not have the funds to conduct the election, he will also continue to remain in power because he does not have a popular vote. Mr. Peiris added that if the government postpones the local government election as the fourth step, it will harm the country’s democracy and create a strong opinion in the international community.
