The government has decided to consult the Attorney General regarding the division within the National Election Commission as the dates for the Local Government Elections are very close. The government has reached this decision in view of the division within the National Elections Commission (NEC) at a time when the gazette calling for the Local Government Election was about to be issued.
The Government has intended further to take immediate advice on the steps to be taken due to the fact that there was only a minimal number of personnel supporting the Elections Commission Nimal Punchihewa.
It has been learnt that the main reason for the serious internal division is that a section is of the view that the election should be held while another group has declared that the election should not be held due to lack of money.
Election monitoring organizations are of the opinion that there being two clear groups in the Election Commission, will cause many problems to arise even if nominations are called, and during the conduct of the election. Although more than Rs.12 billion is required for the conduct the election, only Rs 10 billion has been allocated in the budget, and as a result a majority of people are of the opinion that it is not possible to manage the election expenses without obtaining the full amount.
They point out that if the government employees’ payments, as well as payments for fuel and food, are not received from the treasury, many problems will arise. Therefore, a majority of the members of the Elections Commission have requested not to announce the date of the election without obtaining a guarantee that the money will be received after discussing these issues with the Finance Ministry.
A senior member of the Elections Commission said that the chairman and the minority group with him are blindly confident that the necessary financial allocations will be released by the Finance Ministry for the election.
Election office officials are of the opinion that problems will arise in election duties due to the internal division that exists even after the publication of the gazette announcement of nominations. A senior officer of the Elections Commission said that taking all the above facts into consideration, it has been decided to obtain immediate advice regarding the steps to be taken in relation to the current division in the Elections Commission.
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