Sri Lanka’s Ninth General Parliamentary elections will be held on tomorrow (August 5th) amidst the Corona crisis in accordance with full health procedures. Chairman of Election Commission of Sri Lanks Mahinda Deshapriya informed that all arrangements have been made in this regard.
The election will end the uncertainty of political leadership in Sri Lanka that arose when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa dissolved the Parliament Five-months before the schedule for an early election.
The petitions filed by Opposition parties and civil societies against this decision also did not help as the Supreme Court rejected their pleas and the elections were scheduled for April 25th. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, the Election Commission postponed its elections to June 20th. The election was again was postponed to August 5th.
According to sources, 70 political parties, 313 independent groups, and 7452 candidates are contesting in the elections this time. The Sri Lankan citizens will vote for their representatives tomorrow starting at 7 AM. The voting process has been extended to continue until 5 PM in the evening. The voting schedules are open for an hour more than usual owing to the Corona scare.
The President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has summoned the new Parliament to meet on 20th August 2020 (Thursday) following the General Parliamentary Elections tomorrow. An unusual Gazette notification was issued last night (3rd August 2020) in this regard. The decision has been made by the President using the powers vested in him by the Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Parliamentary Electoral Act.
To ensure the smooth conduct of election without becoming a public health hazard, the Election Commission had previously held mock elections. With the country, all set for elections, ballot boxes and ballot papers were sent to the polling stations today.
All the activities are being carried out under the supervision of District Election Officials, The Election Commission of Sri Lanka.
