{"id":81392,"date":"2023-02-24T00:36:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T04:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=81392"},"modified":"2023-02-24T15:00:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T19:00:59","slug":"sri-lankas-election-commission-announces-postponement-of-local-govt-elections-scheduled-for-march-9-due-to-reasons-beyond-its-controlnew-date-for-the-local-body-polls-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=81392","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Election Commission Announces Postponement of  local govt elections scheduled for March 9 due to reasons \u201cbeyond\u201d its control;new date for the local body polls will be announced on March 3, says the EC  in a media statement."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By<\/p>\n<p>Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s Election Commission on Friday said the country\u2019s local government elections, scheduled for March 9, stands postponed due to reasons \u201cbeyond\u201d its control.<\/p>\n<p>The new date for the local body polls will be announced on March 3, the Election body said in a media statement.<\/p>\n<p>Further, the Election Commission has sought the intervention of the Parliamentary Speaker to secure the funds required to hold elections.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The development comes even as President Ranil Wickremesinghe faces sharp criticism from the political opposition, civil society, and religious leaders, for \u201cpostponing\u201d the elections.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, he told Parliament that his priority was \u201crebuilding the economy, and not politics.\u201d \u201cThere is no official date set for the election yet for it to be postponed,\u201d Mr. Wickremesinghe claimed, after members of his United National Party \u2014 and other political parties \u2014 filed nominations in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The Treasury earlier said it did not have adequate funds to hold local government elections that were estimated to cost Sri Lankan Rupees (LKR) 10 billion. Government critics deem the conduct of polls a necessary democratic exercise, especially since it is the first election after the Rajapaksas were ousted from power by a mass citizens\u2019 movement last year.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s top lawyers\u2019 association, academics, and rights defenders earlier issued statements demanding timely polls, while opposition parties have warned of more protests. The Anglican Church noted in a recent statement: \u201cThe hallmark of any democracy is the opportunity it affords citizens to choose their own elected representatives at the due time. Denying that opportunity to our people will only affirm the fact that we are now under a dictatorship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton81392\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D81392&amp;text=Sri%20Lanka%E2%80%99s%20Election%20Commission%20Announces%20Postponement%20of%20%20local%20govt%20elections%20scheduled%20for%20March%209%20due%20to...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka\u2019s Election Commission on Friday said the country\u2019s local government elections, scheduled for March 9, stands postponed due to reasons \u201cbeyond\u201d its control. The new date for the local body polls will be announced on March 3, the Election body said in a media statement. Further, the Election Commission has sought &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=81392\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Sri Lanka\u2019s Election Commission Announces Postponement of  local govt elections scheduled for March 9 due to reasons \u201cbeyond\u201d its control;new date for the local body polls will be announced on March 3, says the EC  in a media statement.&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81393,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81392\/revisions\/81393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}