Discretion permitted for other elections

by Rathindra Kuruwita

The presidential election is the only election that the constitution has set a time frame for, Commissioner General of Elections, Saman Sri Ratnayake said last week. He said this is not the case with other elections, so the presidential election can’t be postponed.

“The Elections Commission has no direct authority over holding other elections. Consider the local authorities elections as an example. The tenure of the local councils is four years. The line minister can hold the election a year earlier, or he can extend their terms by a year.

“The tenure of a parliament is five years but the president can dissolve parliament after two and a half years of its term.. This is not the case with a presidential election,” he said.

Ratnayake said the constitution lays down a five-year term for the presidency and there are no provisions to extend it. On November 18, 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sworn in as president. The constitution stipulates that the next presidential election should be held between September 18 and October 18.

The Commissioner General of Elections said even if the president dissolves parliament in the first week of September, his department has the capability of holding both the general and presidential election on dates close to each other.

“The constitution says that if a president dissolves parliament, he or she is bound to provide the necessary funding and other facilities for an election. This year, we asked for 20 billion rupees to hold the presidential and local or provincial council elections. We only got 10 billion but if the government decides to hold local or provincial council elections, the treasury is bound to provide us the necessary funds,” he said.

Ratnayake said the estimates for the 2024 elections were based on prices that prevailed in late 2023. He added that there are about 800,000 first time voters for the election to be held in 2024.

Commenting on campaign financing, he said that this is not a new concept for Sri Lanka. Expenditure by candidates was limited by law until 1977.

“George E. de Silva lost his seat in parliament in 1948 following an election petition filed by his opponent, T.B. Ilangaratne. He was deprived of his civic rights on being found guilty of not listing an expenditure of Rs. 40 for getting his manifesto translated in his election expenditure return,

K. M. P. Rajaratna was fined Rs. 100 in 1955 by the District Court of Badulla for not submitting his election expenses return. He also lost his seat. Elections were then worked on the first- past-the post basis,” he said.

This changed with the proportional representation system where political parties submit a list of nominations of candidates. Earlier, each candidate was responsible for handing in his or her own nomination papers, Ratnayake said.

Politicians need funds to run a campaign, he said. However, when there is no cap on expenditure, availability of money becomes the determining factor in winning elections. During the 2018 local election, a candidate spent 40 million rupees for a ward with 1,800 voters in Maduraketiya, Moneragala, Ratnayake said describing this as “ludicrous.”