Chairman of the Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna, Prof. G.L. Peiris, said on Friday that he will go to court in the next two or three weeks if the foot dragging over scheduling the Provincial Council elections that are due continues.
“This is preposterous. It is an intolerable situation and it is time to cry halt to this,” he said. “The whole thing is a fraud on a matter as fundamental as the franchise.”
Contending that the view expressed by Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya that Parliament must legislate for these elections to be held as “erroneous,” Peiris said that the Elections Commission “is certainly not entitled to wash their hands of this matter and lightly say it is all up to Parliament.”
He said that the Interpretations Ordinance Section 6 (2) says “Wherever any written law repeals in whole or in part any former written law and substitutes therefor some new provision, such repeal shall not effect until such substituted provision goes into operation.”
The Provincial Councils Election (Amendment) Act No. 17 of 2017, certified on Sept. 22, 2017, repeals several provisions of the earlier law, Provincial Councils Elections Act No. 2 of 1988. There cannot be a lacuna between the old law and the new law. If changes to the new law are required, then the old law must prevail, he said.
Courtesy: The Island
