• Plans discussions with party secretaries next month
• Mechanism should be developed for all elections: Rathnayake

The Election Commission (EC) has held preliminary discussions with ten relevant institutions regarding the implementation of the recently adopted campaign finance laws in the upcoming elections, The Daily Morning learns.  

According to the EC, a two-day discussion had been held with election monitoring bodies and law enforcement agencies on the new laws.

The EC also said that a discussion with political party secretaries and heads of media institutions regarding the same was expected to be held within the next month.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (28), EC Chairman R.M.A.L. Rathnayake said that they must implement the said law as it had been passed by Parliament. Considering the need to implement the laws and upcoming elections, particularly the Presidential Election to be held this year, he said that a preliminary round of discussions with the relevant institutions and election monitoring bodies had been held last week.

“We should prepare a mechanism through which these laws can be implemented. Several institutions such as the Department of Police, the Inland Revenue Department, and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) should assist the implementation of these laws. 

“We had a two-day discussion with them and election monitoring bodies last week. During it, we requested them to submit their proposals and they will do it in the coming days. In addition, we hope to have another discussion with political party secretaries and media institution heads during the course of the next month,” he explained.

Rathnayake added that a mechanism should be prepared for the implementation of campaign finance laws not only targeting the Presidential Elections, but also other elections that will be held in the future. As an initial step towards it, he said that the EC had declared that candidates who were contesting the Local Government (LG) Elections, which was later postponed indefinitely, could spend only Rs. 20 per voter.

On 19 January 2023, the Parliament of Sri Lanka passed the Regulation of Election Expenditure Act, the first framework to regulate election campaign finance in the country. It regulates the expenditure incurred by candidates in LG, Provincial Council, Parliamentary, and Presidential Elections.

Sri Lanka has attempted to introduce campaign finance legislation for decades, only succeeding this month.