SW News: The Sri Lankan Church has said that the government's decision to put off the local council elections that were supposed to happen in March is "anti-democratic." Father Cyril Gamini Fernando, the Colombo archdiocese's designated spokesman, shared the cardinal's remarks with the media during a news conference on February 21.
For his part, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith pondered whether or not the vote had been put off because of growing discontent with the administration. The leaders, he said, should "have enough humility" to accept the will of the people.
Father Fernando added that Cardinal Ranjith has appealed to the president and other important government figures to support the elections since it is the duty of those individuals under the constitution to provide the circumstances for their peaceful conduct.
In an address to parliament on Thursday, President Ranil Wickremesinghe expressed similar concerns that the local election would not take place. "Elections have not been called by the electoral commission." "There is no postponing it," Wickremesinghe said.
Wickremesinghe said that it was his job as president right now to get the economy back on track after the crisis. He hinted that holding local elections when the state's finances were already tight would only add to the pressure.
The Election Commission told the Supreme Court that it would be hard to hold local body elections on March 9 due to the country's current economic crisis and lack of money.
Meanwhile, a former Sri Lankan Army colonel petitioned the Supreme Court to halt local government election preparations, but the hearing has been postponed until May 11.
As reported by PTI, due to the ongoing economic crisis, the election to choose 340 local council leaders for terms of four years has been postponed for the last 18 months.
Wickremesinghe's adversaries accuse him of trying to thwart elections by putting pressure on state officials and the elections commission to call off the poll.
Antony Fernando, a Catholic teacher in Negombo, said that the government postponed elections because it knew it would lose, and he warned that delaying the local council poll would leave future presidential and general assembly elections short of finances.