The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) claimed that it, as the ruling party, has exerted the maximum possible influence on President and Finance Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to provide the necessary facilities for holding the Local Government (LG) polls.

While the LG Elections, which were scheduled to be held, have been postponed indefinitely, there are now preparations to hold the Presidential Election this year.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, SLPP General Secretary and Government Parliamentarian attorney Sagara Kariyawasam said that they had continuously informed the President that the SLPP was against the postponing of elections. “We have exerted the maximum possible pressure on Wickremesinghe to hold the LG Elections. Beyond it, there is nothing that we can do with regard to his decisions as the Finance Minister.”

He also claimed that other political parties such as the Opposition’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) were not acting enough to pressurise the President to hold the LG Elections. “We, as the SLPP, have continued to demand that LG Elections be held, but other political parties don’t do the same.”

The LG Elections were initially scheduled to be held in March 2023, but the Finance Ministry and the general Treasury had not released the required funds to the Election Commission (EC), and the said polls were then rescheduled to April 2023. Since the funds were not released by that time too, the EC once again postponed the elections, only this time, indefinitely. 

Meanwhile, the EC recently stated that in the event the Presidential Election is held without holding the LG Elections, people would question as to how provisions that could not be made for the latter elections would be made for the former.