• Claims ‘extreme difficulty’ in repaying multilateral loans, paying salaries, pensions, welfare allowances

The Government is finding it difficult to release the funds required to hold the Local Government (LG) Elections, State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe told The Daily Morning yesterday (03). 

Minister Semasinghe claimed that the national economy had not yet stabilised to the level that was required to release the funds. 

“The country's economy is yet to stabilise to its fullest potential. Therefore, the Government is still finding it difficult to release the money required for holding the LG Elections”.

Despite several requests made by the Election Commission (EC), the Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ministry and the General Treasury are yet to release the relevant funds to hold the LG election.

The Daily Morning contacted Semasinghe to inquire about the Government's stance on the matter. To this, he said that the Government is finding it “extremely difficult” to make mandatory payments such as the repayment of multilateral loans, the salaries and pensions of public servants and the welfare allowances such as the Samurdhi allowance. "The economy has not yet recovered to the expected level. We still find it extremely difficult to meet the mandatory expenses. The EC will have to discuss with the relevant authorities and come to a consensus. As the Government, we need the full stabilisation of the economy," he said.

The relevant funds for the LG election have not been released by the authorities in the wake of the Supreme Court having issued an interim order on the Secretary to the Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ministry and Treasury Mahinda Siriwardana, preventing him from withholding the funds allocated for the elections through the Budget 2023.

Although the LG poll was scheduled to be held on 9 March, the Ministry and the General Treasury had not released the required funds to the EC. The EC then rescheduled the LG election to 25 April, and the postal voting to 28, 29, 30 and 31 March and yesterday (3), 2023, but the required funds have not yet been released.