Sri Lanka’s local council election to take place early next year, says minister

Sri Lanka’s local council election could take place early next year, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath announced on Saturday (November 23, 2024).

“We have no monies allocated to hold it this year, but they will be held early next year,” Mr. Herath told reporters.

This will be the third country-wide election since September besides an election held for a local council in late September.

The local council election has been due since March 2023 when it came to be suspended due to the economic crisis.

The government said it was unable to allocate monies because of the dire finances caused by the economic crisis.

However, the highest court in response to a fundamental rights petition filed by the Opposition ruled that the then finance minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Sri Lanka Election Commission had violated fundamental rights by their failure to hold the election.

The court ordered the holding of the election as soon as possible.

Election Commission officials at the end of the parliamentary election held on November 14 said arrangements to hold the local election would soon commence.

“The commission is set to meet on November 27 to make final decisions,” officials said.

Some 340 local councils would go to polls to elect bodies for a four-year term. The last nationwide local election was held in February 2018.

Published - November 23, 2024 05:25 pm IST