The election spotlight is now firmly on the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and whether he will release the funds allocated for the Local Government (LG) Polls via the Budget or defy a direct order from the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
With the Supreme Court directing Ministry of Finance Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana to release the finances required and allocated for the Local Government Elections, pressure continues to mount on the Treasury to release the required funds to hold the polls.
The court directive had also instructed the Election Commission (EC) to conduct the Local Government Polls as soon as possible.
Accordingly, following a meeting last week, the Election Commission announced that the new date for the Local Government Polls was likely to be 25 April. However, the Secretary to the Finance Ministry had failed to attend the meeting despite being summoned.
“The Secretary to the Finance Ministry did not attend the meeting. We had summoned him but he said that he would be unable to come as he had to attend another special meeting with the Security Council. We will not be meeting him. Now it is a matter of him responding to our request for funds,” Election Commission Chairman Nimal Punchihewa told The Sunday Morning.
He said that a letter had been sent to the Finance Ministry Secretary requesting the funds once again and that the latter could maintain his previous stance and refuse to allocate the funds. “Then we will file a petition via the Supreme Court. There has been no assurance from either the Finance Minister or the Finance Secretary.”
Punchihewa noted that the Government Printer had said that it would go ahead with the election process. “What we told the Government Printer was that it needed to coordinate with the Treasury directly when it came to obtaining funds. We have started our activities for the election such as staff training and setting up various offices.”
According to directives provided by the EC, Government Printer Gangani Liyanage stated that she had written to the Treasury on Wednesday (8) to release the remaining funds of more than Rs. 300 million to recommence the activities of ballot paper printing for the upcoming LG Polls and had forwarded a written request to Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne seeking the provision of adequate security for the same.
No evidence that funds will be released
Meanwhile, elections watchdog group People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) said that while there was no evidence that the money would be released, the Finance Ministry Secretary must comply with the Supreme Court order.
“There is no indication from the Government side so far. The Finance Minister has not said a word about whether he will release money and it seems to me that he is still trying to block the election process. However, the court decision is clear and I don’t think the Treasury Secretary has an escape route. It is a very direct order, so he has to comply.
“The EC has now once again sent a letter on Tuesday to the Treasury Secretary requesting the money, so he has to respond. If the money comes somehow, then the EC can manage with the rest,” PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi said.
Public officials as scapegoats
He warned that public officials should be cautious of blind loyalty to politicians as they would be sacrificed if an issue were to be taken up in court.
“Public officials also need to realise that politicians won’t support them in the face of any legal challenges. We saw this in the past when the Secretary to the Cabinet called on the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration to issue a letter preventing district secretaries from accepting the deposits.
“However, when there was public outcry over this, the Prime Minister, who was the subject minister, made a statement that no such decision had been taken, throwing the Ministry Secretary under the bus. Ultimately, public officials will be on their own. Even if they resign or retire, they are still liable because it constitutes a violation of the Constitution as well as a court order.”
Further, Hettiarachchi noted that the court order had been issued to the Finance Ministry Secretary and the Minister of Finance, therefore whoever held the office was responsible to carry out the order.
Govt.’s real intentions
He then charged that the President’s most recent speech indicated that the Government’s real intention was to forgo all elections and jump straight into the Presidential Election.
“If you look at this whole speech, you can see that his intention is to not have any elections this year or early next year. They want to directly go for Presidential Elections. That is their real intention. The most dangerous part of his speech is where he talks about how Sri Lanka’s electoral system is very expensive and that a simpler system is needed. This means he is going to introduce two new electoral systems.
“If they start with reforms for Parliamentary Elections, it will be a mixed system and there will be another delimitation and an automatic delay again. They will do with the Parliamentary Elections what they did with the Provincial Council Elections and the Local Government Elections. That is what is even more dangerous,” he claimed.
The PAFFREL Executive Director further noted that civil society was prepared to file many more petitions if the Government attempted to delay elections. “We have already drafted two petitions but we have not submitted them because we are waiting to see how the Government will react to the current court judgements and whether it will release the funds.”
He added that they had started public petitions for people to engage with and demand that elections be held as soon as possible.
Several attempts to contact Treasury Secretary Siriwardana failed.