BY PRIYAN DE SILVA and
Rathindra Kuruwita

Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Rathnayake said that the postal voting for the local authorities elections scheduled for the 22, 23 and 24 February might have to be postponed as the Election Commission (EC) was unable to dispatch polling cards and other documents, to the 1116 polling centres, across the country.

The polling cards were to be dispatched today (15) but the Department of Government Printing had failed to deliver the polling cards.

The Commissioner General of Elections told The Island that when he met the Government Printer, Gangani Liyanage, on Friday (10), she had confirmed that the printing was underway and assured him that the ballot papers for the postal vote would be ready by 12 noon on Tuesday (14).

But for some reason, Liyanage had reneged on her assurance and requested in writing the settlement of the full estimated cost of printing (Rs. 401,594,852.56).

She had cited, as the reason for the delay, President Ranil Wickremasinghe’s order on January 31st, as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies to curtail government expenditure with a warning to public officials that they would be personally held responsible for whatever goods and services they obtained on credit.

The Government Printer submitted an estimate (REV/AGP/03/02/03/2023) for Rs. 401,594,852.56 in early January 2023, more than a week after the President’s order. The printer has requested a 50% advance which could be paid in tranches. The quotation also states that the Department of Government Printing is going ahead with the work with the raw material which was in stock.

Rathnayaka said that the usual procedure was for the Treasury to release funds from time to time and confirmed that the Treasury had released a partial payment of approximately Rs. 40mn to the Department of Government Printing, initially.

Our attempts to contact the Government Printer on Tuesday (14) proved futile.

Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Studies and Electoral Reforms (IRES), Manjula Gajanayake has warned that the order by the President to curtail government expenditure is a sinister ploy to disrupt the LG poll.

When contacted by The Island yesterday, Gajanayake reiterated that if any public official refuses, or failed without a reasonable cause to comply with the Commission, he or she would commit an offence under Article 104GG of the Constitution and said it was imperative that legal action be instituted against such officials as a warning to others

104GG (1) states: Any public officer, any employee of any public corporation, business or other undertaking vested in the Government under any other written law and any company registered or deemed to be registered under the Companies Act, No. 7 of 2007, in which the Government or any public corporation or local authority holds fifty per cent or more of the shares of that company, who – a) refuses or fails without a reasonable cause to cooperate with the Commission, to secure the enforcement of any law relating to the holding of an election or the conduct of a Referendum; or (b) fails without a reasonable cause to comply with any directions or guidelines issued by the Commission under sub-paragraph (a) of paragraph (4) or sub-paragraph (a) of paragraph (5), respectively, of Article 104B, shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand rupees or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both such fine and imprisonment.