- AKD alleges Prez ordered to stop printing
- Marikkar notes payments in past polls made in instalments
- GL says Independence Day printing done sans payments
After the distribution of postal ballot papers that was scheduled to be held yesterday (15) was postponed indefinitely with the notification made by the Government Printer Gangani Liyanage to the Election Commission (EC) that the postal ballot papers related to the Local Government (LG) election cannot be printed until the relevant payments are received in full, several politicians representing the Opposition expressed critical views on the actions of Liyanage, and emphasised that she should be immediately called before the EC and questioned.
Speaking at a media briefing held yesterday, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People's Power (NPP) Leader and Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the EC was working at its best to hold the postal voting for the LG election. He said that two matters should be accomplished in order to hold the postal voting, namely, the printing of the postal ballot papers and distributing them to the relevant centres. He also said that out of the required number of nearly 600,000 postal ballot papers, more than 300,000 had already been printed, and that the Government Printing Department is currently in the possession of the relevant papers and ink sufficient for the printing work of two elections.
“The Government Printing Department was carrying out this work, but Liyanage and Attorney General, President's Counsel Sanjay Rajaratnam were called for a meeting with President Ranil Wickremesinghe and President's Secretary Saman Ekanayake. During that meeting, he (the President) had given an order to stop the printing of ballot papers. Liyanage then sent a letter to EC Chairman, Attorney Nimal G. Punchihewa. In that letter, she says that as a petition filed in the Supreme Court (SC) regarding the conduct of the LG election is currently being heard, and as no final judgement has been given there, a problematic situation has arisen regarding the printing of ballot papers and the cost incurred for the same. However, the proceedings of the Government Printing Department cannot be applied to a case pending in Court. Every time there is an election, someone goes and files a case. In this manner, the Government Printing Department will say that they cannot print ballot papers because there are cases in every such instance. This is an illegal action deliberately taken by Liyanage through Wickremesinghe's influence,” claimed Dissanayake.
“The Constitution clearly mentions the punishments that will be given to public servants who deliberately attempt to disrupt the conduct of an election. There is a very important judgement given by the SC recently. That is the judgement which involves former secretary to the Ministry of Defence Hemasiri Fernando, former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara and former State Intelligence Service Chief, Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Nilantha Jayawardana and several others (the judgement in which Fernando, Jayasundara, Jayawardana and several others were ordered to pay compensation to the victims of the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019). It refers to the failure of those officers to fulfil their responsibilities and the abdication of accountability to the people. You may also remember the then President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and another individual named Anusha Palpita were remanded in relation to the 'sil cloths (white garment worn by Buddhists)’ case. Public officials end up going to jail for acting on the wishes of politicians. Therefore, we ask the public officials who assist in disrupting the election to keep those judgements in mind.”
Main Parliamentary Opposition, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP, S.M. Marikkar, commenting on the conduct of Liyanage, said: "We would like to tell Liyanage and the Treasury and Finance Ministry Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana not to work as per the wishes of Wickremesinghe. What is supreme is the Constitution and the circulars issued under it. It is their responsibility to work according to the instructions of the EC. If the Government Printer says that ballot papers cannot be printed without the full payment, we ask her to see how the printing work has been done in previous elections. Such payments are being done in instalments in a systematic way. Therefore, she should be ready to go to jail if she violates the Constitution by not supporting the holding of the LG election."
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Chairman and Opposition MP, Prof. G.L. Peiris, attending a media briefing yesterday, said that the EC should summon Liyanage before it and question her as to whether the decision to suspend printing ballot papers was taken due to any influence exerted by some party. He also said that it is totally unacceptable for Liyanage to say that the ballot papers cannot be printed due to the full payment not being received, when the Government Printing Department, which is under her control, has carried out many printing works for the Independence Day celebration which was held on 4 February, without receiving the full payments.
“Liyanage is asking the EC to make the full payment at once to print the ballot papers. This has never happened. This is not the tradition of the Government, and something that is not realistic. Now, she is asking the EC for the entire sum of Rs. 410 million, but did she ask for the full payment when printing work was carried out for the Independence Day celebration? Many pamphlets were printed for that show, which was completely unnecessary and a waste of public money, but she did not ask for even five cents. Now, she is asking for money all at once to conduct the election. Also, on what basis is this full payment being requested? The full payment is not required to print postal ballot papers. The primary need is to print postal ballot papers because the postal voting will be held on 22, 23 and 24 February. Only a portion of the total amount is required for it,” he said.
Claiming that therefore, there is no reason for the Government Printer to request the full payment, Prof. Peiris said that it is very clear that this is an attempt to prevent the LG election from being held. “This has no other purpose at all. This completely illegal work is being done to push matters to create a difficult situation to hold the LG election. So, what should happen? The EC should summon Liyanage and ask why she is doing something that has never happened before. On 10 February, Liyanage had informed the EC that the work related to the LG election was being done and that the ballot papers were being printed. She had said that ballot papers could be delivered on the promised date without any problem. Within three days, everything changed. Therefore, the EC has a duty and responsibility to summon Liyanage and ask why her attitude changed completely, and whether it was due to any influence, and whether she was summoned by someone, and whether she was influenced by someone at such a meeting. It is the EC's role to find out about it and the first thing should be to summon her.”
Opposition MP representing the Freedom People's Alliance (FPA), Prof. Charitha Herath also commented on the actions of Liyanage, and said: “I saw that Liyanage had written to the EC. I think that it might be the saddest letter that she wrote in her life. She had written that there was no money, so a situation in which it was impossible to print the ballot papers required for the election, had arisen. This means that she cannot do her job. Maybe, there was nothing else for her to do, but with this, a serious problem has arisen in respect of the public service. There is no Government when it is not possible to hold elections. Everything such as the Presidency, the Government, and the State Departments has been created by the franchise. When the people are deprived of their right to vote, all the institutions created on the franchise will collapse. This is what is going to happen. So, we ask the Government not to do this.”
JVP Politburo member Sunil Handunnetti, while commenting on the conduct of Liyanage, said: “A former EC Chair once said that he was under stress. We do not know if the Government Printer is also under stress before this LG election. No matter what stress she is having, she is answerable to the people of this country. She gets her salary from public money. If there is a problem of not having money, the larger amount of money has been spent now. If you started printing and stopped it in the middle, it means that you have been influenced by someone. Therefore, we request the EC to call Liyanage and question her on this matter.”
The Government Printer had informed the EC in writing that the printing of ballot papers for the upcoming LG election could not be proceeded with sans the funds being released. Therefore, the distribution of ballot papers for postal voting scheduled to be held yesterday had been postponed indefinitely. Due to delays that occurred in the distribution of ballot papers for postal voting, the EC had written to Siriwardana to release funds to print ballot papers for the same, as a total sum of Rs. 460 million is required to print ballot papers for the entire LG election.