• 5.3 million voters didn’t cast their vote during Parliamentary General
• ‘We did everything possible’: Rathnayake
• EC to study high number of rejected votes

The primary responsibility to mobilise voters to cast their votes during elections lies with political parties and their local representative, the Election Commission (EC) stated yesterday (17).

Nevertheless, the Commission stressed that they have done their best to encourage citizens to cast their vote during the Presidential and Parliamentary General Elections.

Nearly 3.5 million eligible citizens did not vote in the Presidential Election, while 5.3 million chose not to vote in the Parliamentary Election, indicating a significant increase. 

When contacted by The Daily Morning, EC Chairperson R.M.A.L. Rathnayake said that they did their best to encourage citizens to visit polling stations and cast their votes in both elections. "Prior to the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, we requested the people to cast their votes through the media. On 14 November, I made statements at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., spoke about the importance of voting, and urged everyone eligible to vote. What else can we do? There is nothing more we can do to get the people to vote. We did everything possible."

Claiming that encouraging citizens to cast vote is not a responsibility of the EC, he said that it is something that political parties and their representatives at regional levels should do. "What we are supposed to do is to hold elections. Getting people to vote is not our duty. But, we do whatever possible to encourage voters. Every political party has their representatives at polling stations. They know whether the voter turnover is low or high. When voter absenteeism is considerably low, there should be a programme in place within political parties to encourage their supporters to cast their vote."

When asked about a total of 667,240 votes cast in the Parliamentary Election being rejected, Rathnayake said that they are still studying the issue. "The polling stations categorise reasons for votes to be rejected, and refer them to us. We will have to wait for all those submissions to be made to tell what exactly has happened."

The Presidential Election to elect the ninth Executive President was held on 21 September, while the Parliamentary Election to elect the 10th Parliament (inclusive of Parliaments stemming from the post-1972 First Republican Constitution era) was held on 14 November.