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Polls monitors fear quasi dictatorship with present rulers postponing polls

Published

4 years ago

2023/02/24

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Sri Lanka is fast becoming a semi-fascist state, Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies (IRES) Manjula Gajanayake says. Commenting on the government’s attempts to postpone elections, Gajanayake said the 2023 local council election would be known as the one where a few state officials backed by the government managed to postpone an election, and undermine representative democracy.

“President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently said he would handle the economy while the Supreme Court determined whether elections should be held. This is not what the Constitution says. Article 4 (b) of the Constitution, on the exercise of Sovereignty, says ‘the executive power of the People including the defence of Sri Lanka shall be exercised by the President of the Republic elected by the People.’ Therefore, the President must hold the elections so that we can exercise our sovereignty,” Gajanayake said.

“If elections are not held by March 19, the local councils will be administered by the Governors, who are appointed by the President. Provincial Councils are already run by Governors.

“Parliament has become a rubber stamp of the President. Now, if elections are not held, local and provincial councils as well as the Parliament will be under Ranil’s thumb. Ranil will soon hold more power than the elected Presidents. We are next door to a semi-fascist state now.”

Sri Lankan independent commissions have become nursing homes for senior government officials who want a comfortable life after retirement, Gajanayake said, commenting on the role played by some Election Commissioners.

“Why can’t we appoint younger people with energy and drive? For example, those who retired from the Department of Elections are trying to get into the Elections Commission,” he said.

A member of the elections commission, P. S. M Charles had resigned from the commission, he said. Charles earlier held the post of Governor.

There is chaos in interdependent commissions when those who do not have the capacity to handle pressure are appointed as their members.

“This is why some people question if the concept of independent commissions is suitable for Sri Lanka,” he said.

Gajanayake said that according to the law state officials who obstructed elections could be fined Rs 100,000 and/or sentenced to jail for three years. “The Election Commission has done nothing about those who obstruct elections. I would warn that soon even some of the politically-motivated lowest government servants will start challenging the EC,” he said.

Commissioner General of Elections, Saman Sri Ratnayake said that the Government Printer had not said that there was inadequate security at the Department of Government Printing until 14 February.

“We received nominations from various political parties and independent groups. 87, 720 candidates are contesting elections. Each returning officer sent the political parties that contest for each area and after checking the list, we sent the model ballot papers to the government printer. The Government Printer sent us a draft of the ballot paper, we proofread it and asked the government printer to print the ballot papers,” he said.

The EC had sent the proofread model ballot papers for all local council areas to the Government Printer by 23 January, he said.

“The Government Printer promised us to give ballot papers needed for postal voting by 10 February. Things went on routinely and there was continuous communication with all involved. Since we were told that ballot papers needed for postal voting will be given by 10 February, we had planned to send ballot papers to returning officers by 15 February. There are 676,000 postal voters. We were ready and the government printer kept on telling us that the printing process was going on smoothly,” he said.

Ratnayake said the Government Printer had asked for an extension till 13 February and then another one until 15 February.

“We were ready to dispatch the ballot paper by 15th and therefore we asked the Government Printer to finish printing by 14 noon. Then, we were suddenly told the printing had not been completed and then we had to tell the Postal Department that we would not be able to dispatch the ballot papers on the 15th,” he said.

Ratnayake said because of the delay by the Government Printer, postal voting could not be held as scheduled on 22 to 24 February.

“Holding elections is not a responsibility that we bear alone. There are many institutions involved and everyone must do their duty. Printing ballot papers is in the mission statement of the government printer. The Government Printer must print ballot papers, as per their own mission statement and the constitution of the country. We are in this mess because they have not done their duty,” he said.

Executive Director of People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), Rohana Hettiarachchi said postponing an election allegedly due to a shortage of funds set a bad precedent and that every Sri Lankan must work together to pressure the government to hold local council elections.

“If you look at our electoral history, some governments have delayed elections. Some have held them earlier or have held elections on a staggered basis. They have played around with election dates to get an advantage. However, all this was done within the legal framework. For example, the line minister can delay an election. The president can call an early election. This time the government has used illegal ways to postpone elections. It has manipulated various actors to ensure that the local council election can’t be held,” he said.

Hettiarachchi said that if the government succeeded in delaying the election, it would set a bad precedent. The main argument against an election by the government was that there was no money in the Treasury to hold an election, he said.

“However, it is obvious that the government has money for other things. Yes, we agree that there is a crisis and that the Minister of Finance should carefully manage the economy. But elections should be a priority for him because people’s sovereignty is above all. A government gets a mandate to carry out their economic, social, or other programs through elections,” he said.

Hettiarachchi said if the government succeeded in postponing the election, future rulers will use any pretext to postpone elections. “Someone can deliberately destroy our economy and claim that elections can’t be held because there is no money. What will we do then? We have to stop this attempt at postponing the election now,” he said.

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President meets representatives from Sri Lanka Scout Association

Published

2 hours ago

2026/09/11

Priyan

A meeting between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and representatives of the Sri Lanka Scout Association was held at the Presidential Secretariat on Thursday (10) afternoon .

The President was briefed on the 11th National Scout Jamboree, scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in January 2027, as well as the current status and progress of its organisational arrangements.

The official logo of the National Scout Jamboree was also presented to the President and officially unveiled on the occasion.

Views were also exchanged on the programmes currently being implemented by the Sri Lanka Scout Association and its future plans.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake emphasised the importance of expanding the Scout Movement to more schools and the contribution that the Scout Movement can make to the Government’s programmes to combat drugs.

President’s Senior Additional Secretary Roshan Gamage; Chief Scout Commissioner, Attorney-at-Law Manoj Nanayakkara; President of the Sri Lanka Scout Association Ransiri Perera; Deputy Chief Scout Commissioner (Acting) Kapila Perera; Chairman of the Executive Committee Kamalnath Jinadasa; and Jamboree Co-Organising Commissioner, Engineer Amil Abeysundara, were among the senior representatives of the Sri Lanka Scout Association who attended the occasion.

[President’s Media Division]

News

Meeting between Catholic religious leaders and President

Published

3 hours ago

2026/09/11

Priyan

A meeting between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Catholic religious leaders, led by His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, was held at the Presidential Secretariat on Thursday (10).

Special attention was given to the Government’s programme to strengthen coexistence, peace and reconciliation among all communities in the country and to ensure national unity by preventing any form of racist or religiously motivated hate activity.

The progress of investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks was also discussed.

Lengthy discussions were held on measures that could be taken to prevent environmental damage and destruction affecting the lives of the people.

The Catholic religious leaders commended the measures taken by the Government to safeguard trust among all communities and expressed their fullest support for these efforts.

The issues faced by Catholic communities, including infrastructure development in areas where Catholic people reside, as well as measures that should be taken to address these issues, were also discussed at length.

Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini, Rev. Fr. Julian Patrick and other priests, as well as Deputy Minister of Religious and Cultural Affairs Muneer Mulaffer, President’s Senior Additional Secretary Roshan Gamage and others, were also present at the meeting.

President’s Media Division (PMD)

News

Sri Lanka faces new grid challenge as rooftop solar surges: former CEB GM

Published

7 hours ago

2026/09/11

Thilina Walpola

BY IfhAm NIzAm

Sri Lanka could soon face a new electricity-grid challenge—not from too little power, but from having too much solar generation in the wrong places and at the wrong times, a former Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) General Manager told The Island.

The former CEB GM who insisted not to be named warned that the rapid growth of rooftop and utility-scale solar could place increasing pressure on CEB and LECO distribution feeders, substations and the national grid unless transmission, storage and grid-management systems are upgraded at the same pace.

“The issue is no longer simply how much solar we can install. The question is whether the grid can absorb those electrons when and where they are produced,” he told The Island.

He said Sri Lanka should learn from China and India, where the enormous expansion of renewable generation is now forcing policymakers to focus increasingly on storage, transmission capacity, intelligent dispatch and grid flexibility.

“China has already exceeded 1.28 TW of installed solar, while India’s grid-connected installed solar capacity stood at around 162.15 GW as of June 30, 2026. The difficult question now is what you actually do with so much solar when everyone is generating at almost the same time,” he said.

For Sri Lanka, he said, the warning is particularly relevant to the distribution network.

A feeder carrying a high concentration of rooftop solar can, during periods of strong sunshine and low local demand, move from the traditional one-way flow of electricity towards consumers to reverse power flow back towards the transformer and upstream network.

“That means the feeder is no longer simply a one-way road for electricity. At certain times of the day, it becomes a two-way road,” he said.

This can create voltage-rise, protection-coordination and transformer-loading issues and could eventually limit the amount of additional rooftop solar that can safely be connected to particular feeders.

“What matters is where those megawatts are connected,” he told The Island.

He said Sri Lanka therefore needs to begin looking at solar hosting capacity feeder by feeder and substation by substation, rather than treating the national grid as having unlimited capacity to absorb new distributed generation.

The problem is compounded by the evening transition, when solar generation falls rapidly just as electricity demand can increase.

“If the system has a lot of solar in the middle of the day and then loses that generation rapidly in the evening, something else has to respond. That is a flexibility problem,” he said.

This is where battery energy storage systems (BESS) are likely to become increasingly important—but the former CEB chief cautioned against allowing cheap imported battery hardware to drive the market.

“Sri Lanka could soon have huge BESS demand, very cheap battery hardware and everyone suddenly becoming a BESS pundit. What could possibly go wrong?” he said.

He cited fire safety, degradation, poor integration, weak energy-management systems, questionable warranties, incorrect sizing, inappropriate grid locations and poor thermal management as major risks.

“A system can look fantastic in Excel on Day One but perform very differently in Year Two,” he told The Island.

He said the future BESS market would therefore be determined less by who could supply the cheapest container and more by who understood the complete system.

“The future BESS business will not be about who can assemble the cheapest container. It will be about who understands battery, PCS, EMS, grid, safety, degradation and dispatch economics as one system,” he said.

For Sri Lanka, storage should also be considered as a distribution-grid asset, rather than solely as a large transmission-level installation.

Strategically located batteries could absorb excess rooftop solar on constrained feeders during the middle of the day and release electricity later when local demand rises, potentially reducing network congestion and improving the value of distributed generation.

“The question is not simply, ‘How many megawatt-hours of batteries do we need?’ The question is, ‘Where does the battery create the greatest system value?’” he said.

He said China’s and India’s experience could broadly be viewed as three stages: Phase One—build solar and wind; Phase Two—build storage; and Phase Three—redesign the grid around renewables.

Sri Lanka, he said, should learn from that progression before renewable penetration makes grid problems significantly more expensive to solve.

“Installing another large amount of solar is one thing. Absorbing those electrons when the sun is shining everywhere at once is quite another,” he said.

“Solar taught us how to generate cheap electrons. BESS and the grid will decide whether those cheap electrons are actually useful when they are needed.”

“That is perhaps the biggest lesson Sri Lanka should take from China and India’s energy transition right now,” he added.