The government hopes to hold all local government and provincial council elections in one day around January or February 2018, Co-cabinet spokesperson, Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday.
According to the recent bill gazetted on the 20th Amendment and amendments proposed to the Provincial Councils Elections Act No 2 of 1988, “the date” on which all elections will be held should not be no “later than the expiration of the term of the last constitute Provincial Council”. The 20th Amendment also proposed to grant powers to dissolve a Provincial Council to Parliament.
At present the central government has no power to dissolve a Provincial Council. If a council is to be dissolved, the central government has to inform the Governor and the Governor in turn has to get the approval all members for it, explained the minister.
“We want to have all elections on one day to stop all election fraud and to stop a party from using the victory of one election as campaign material for others”, Dr Senaratne addressing the weekly media briefing held at the Parliament complex.
He added that having frequent elections will also disrupt day-to-day activities and add to government expenditure.
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