The Sri Lankan Election Commission has postponed the general elections for the country that was scheduled to happen on April 25 to June 20, in view of the prevailing situation due to the Wuhan virus.
The Sri Lankan Parliament was dissolved exactly 2 months ago on March 2 by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was elected in November 2019.
Opposition parties have objected to the new date citing public health risks. It is to be noted that the new poll date poses the risk of an imminent constitutional crisis as the Sri Lankan Constitution mandates that Parliament be summoned not later than 3 months after dissolving the House.
But President Rajapaksa had earlier mentioned that the said poll date was the Election Commission’s prerogative.
Sri Lanka has virtually been under lockdown since March 20. The government has imposed curfews in high risk districts which includes Colombo, the district with highest number of positive cases (157 as of May 2) in the country.
In light of this, President Rajapaksa on Friday ruled out the possibility of reconvening the dissolved Parliament. This comes days after leaders of opposition wrote to President Rajapaksa to reconvene the Parliament. They had evoked Article 70 (7) of the Sri Lankan Constitution that says that if the President is satisfied that an emergency has arisen of such a nature that an earlier meeting of Parliament is necessary, he may summon the dissolved legislature by proclamation. However, President Rajapaksa said that the requirement to abide by the said article didn’t arise.