All the shameful measures taken by the government to prevent the local government elections have now ended. Because of this, we can have optimistic hopes that the Election Commission is following all the measures related to holding the election. There are only two ways to prevent this election legally.
They are making new legislation by Parliament and obtaining an order from a court. A programme has been prepared for the upcoming parliamentary session with the participation of party leaders. According to that programme, a spending limitation bill has been presented for an election on the 18th. There is a possibility of some conflict between this bill which was brought while the election process is going on and the current bill. Also, it takes some time to prepare the implementation orders after this act. We pointed out that it is not fair to consider this and change the laws at this time. The Leader of the House agreed on the points we pointed out.
Accordingly, the Leader of the House agreed to postpone bringing this bill to the 19th and to bring an interim order to this bill and make it not applicable to the currently announced election. Also, it was agreed to adjourn the committee meeting without holding a vote. Accordingly, the last action that can be taken in the parliament to postpone the election has now been defeated.
We believe that the government will keep the agreements given by the leader of the House, Susil Premajayantha in the same way. The Leader of the House is the leader who represents the government in the party leaders’ meeting. For this reason, we believe that according to the agreement that he has given emphatically, a provision will be brought to make this expenditure limitation act not applicable to the election that has been announced, or the voting will be postponed at the time of the committee. We believe that the Leader of the House Susil Premajayantha, will act according to the agreement given to us, even if others do not have integrity or responsibility.
Because of this, all opportunities available from the Parliament to postpone the elections are now over. Also, the remaining possibility of taking judicial action cannot be done according to two decisions given by the court before this. The Supreme Court has decided that the people cannot extend the period for electing representatives for the executive president, parliamentary elections, provincial councils and local government bodies. Also, the Supreme Court has given a decision that officials cannot be delegated authority to control local government institutions and provincial councils. Because of this, we believe that by acting based on previous court decisions, the courts will not take any measures to postpone the election.
But the government is choosing other illicit methods. One such illicit operation was carried out recently when a request was made not to accept the deposit of bail money saying that it was the cabinet’s decision. I would like to know whether the cabinet actually took such a decision. The country should be told whether the cabinet, which is said to have the president’s lawyers, senior lawyers, constitution makers and constitutional law experts, was involved in taking the unconstitutional decision.
There is a group of legal experts like Ali Sabri, Advocate Wijedasa Rajapaksa, Senior Advocate Susil Premajayantha and Nimal Siripala de Silva. The country should be told whether they were involved in making this decision in the cabinet. According to that unconstitutional and illegal decision, the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration had informed the district secretaries not to accept the nomination deposit money.
This illegal decision of Neil Hapuhinna, the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration, a senior official in the Administrative Service., the secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration, is an offense punishable by three years in prison. We have already informed the Attorney General to take further action regarding this action of Neil Hapuhinna.
Ranil Wickramasinghe’s ugly and shameful selection of taking jungle roads to prevent this vote has also been cancelled. Now a big propaganda campaign to prevent the vote has been launched by an adviser to the President and a director of the Presidential Media Unit. I have received all the plans of the propaganda campaign that has been launched to prepare the public opinion necessary for postponing the vote. There are issues in that plan, such as lack of money, cut subsidies, and the fact that it should not be done in the background of recovering from the economic crisis. Also, I have a list of names of journalists, organizations and others from media organizations who are part of this team. It has been mentioned that high-level groups of some media organizations can be used for this campaign. According to this propaganda, Kanchana Wijesekara and Manusha Nanayakkara make various statements. They are making very false statements.
Roughly speaking, the government’s total revenue in 2022 will be two trillion. Roughly speaking, the income of one day is 5500 million rupees. The government expects an income of 3.4 trillion this year. If taken as three trillion, the daily income exceeds 8000 million. Does the government say that one day’s income cannot be spent on voting?
According to 2022 income, two days’ income or, according to 2023 estimates, one day’s income could be spent on voting. Because of this, it is completely a myth that there is no money. If the government cannot find 10 billion rupees for the election, it has no right to be in power. The government should leave. On the other hand, there are a number of options for limiting election expenses. By conducting the election on a weekday, expenses such as overtime can be reduced.
The votes of this election will be counted at the respective polling station. Due to this, counting can be completed in about two hours. This way, overtime allowances do not have to be paid in large quantities. On the other hand, election allowances of public servants are not paid at the same time. It takes four or five months. The ministers say that they will have to cut salaries if the vote is held. The propaganda that pensions and prosperity will be cut is false.
All the constitutional measures taken by Ranil Wickramasinghe to prevent this vote have ended by now. We emphasize that Ranil Wickramasinghe will not be allowed to postpone the election through unconstitutional and illegal processes.”