Election monitors threaten legal action over polls postponement

by Sivakami
Aug 5, 2017

Sri Lanka's election monitors threatened legal action of the government's decision to postpone elections in Provincial Councils. 

Elections were due to be held in the Eastern, North-Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces in October this year, however, the government announced last month that it would be postponing them until it was able to hold all provincial council elections on one day. 

People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE), Movement for Free and Fair Elections (MFFE), Transparency International and Mothers and Daughters of Lanka were cited by the Daily Mirror as questioning the government's agenda in postponing the elections. 

“No one would oppose holding the Provincial Council elections on the same day but the issue is the intention of the government. It is clear that the intention of the Government is to avoid holding elections,” PAFFREL's executive director Rohana Hettiarachchi said.

“We do have an intention of taking legal action against the postponement of elections,” he added. 

See more here. 

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