The Election Commission (EC) has no legal authority to determine the date to hold the Provincial Council election, EC Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said.
He was responding to a question posed by the media when he participated at the inaugural session and the training workshop of Southern Province Youth Provincial Council held at Management Development and Training Institute (Southern Province) at Wakwella, Galle on Sunday.
“Many inquire from us about the date of the Provincial Council election. However the Election Commission does not have any legal provision to decide on the date of Provincial Council election. The Supreme Court also has declared that the Provincial Council election could be held following a modification of respective legal provisions in Parliament. Most importantly many of the MPs in the present ruling party are the politicians who protested against the delay in holding the Provincial Council elections when they were in the Opposition. Many of them took part in the demonstrations held in front of the Election Commission demanding to hold the PC elections.
Hence we believe that they will make arrangements to hold the PC election without further delay, Deshapriya said.
