The Election Commission (EC) has requested the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilisation, and National Policies to allocate Rs. 11 billion from the Budget for the year 2024 for the Presidential Election to be held next year (2024).

Speaking to The Daily Morning, EC Chairman R.M.A.L. Rathnayake said that it is a general practice for the EC to request the Finance Ministry to allocate funds from the budget for a particular year if an election is scheduled to be held that year. The relevant budgetary estimate, he said, includes all other expenses of the EC during the course of the relevant year. “What is scheduled to be held next year is the Presidential Election. So, along with other expenses, we have requested that Rs. 11 billion be allocated for election purposes through the upcoming Budget. There was a deadline for the budgetary estimates to be sent to the Finance Ministry, and we have made the request within that period,” he said.

The most recent Presidential Election was held in Sri Lanka on 16 November 2019, with the term of office of then-President Maithripala Sirisena scheduled to end on 9 January 2020. Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the said election in a landslide victory, defeating his main opponent, incumbent Samagi Jana Balawegaya and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. While the next Presidential Election is scheduled for 2024, the Parliament elected United National Party Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as the successor of Rajapaksa, following the latter’s resignation in July 2022.

Speaking to The Daily Morning on an earlier occasion, Rathnayake said that there was a particular time at which the Presidential Election should be held according to the relevant legal provisions, and that the EC would make the necessary arrangements by then. He said that the EC was empowered to declare the Presidential Election at the right time and that they would do it, adding however that they could not predict what would happen with regard to matters that are beyond their control.