In just a couple of days after the Presidential Poll in Sri Lanka, the race for Parliamentary elections which has been predicted to be more expensive than the recently concluded poll is expected.
But last week I was elected and Anura Kumara Dissanayake became the president of Sri Lanka. The same day quickly after taking office, Dissanayake was reported to have prorogued parliament on Tuesday and announced a general election nearly a year in advance, reported PTI news agency.
The 11th of October, 2010 with forward looking Election commissioner general of Sri Lanka Saman Sri Ratnayake on Wednesday estimating the cost of the parliamentary election to 11 Billion Sri Lankan rupees against INR 3 billion for the presidential election which cost 10 Billion rupees before. PYAR reported that even the money needed for the parliamentary election was not provided as per the present budget.
“The president’s duty is to make provisions for making arrangements for holding referendums under the law with the exercise of head without necessarily budgeting money,” Ratnayake stated.
The commission further observed that the details of the registration list compiled in preparation for the Presidential election will be adopted during the general election as well.
According to the previous holder Ranil Wickremesinghe, plans last year had in view the parliamentary elections as scheduled for next year, they were originally planned to take place in August this year. Since he was a finance minister Wickremesinghe this year had contained the amout of money inform allocation to only cover the presidential elections only.
Early in August, the supreme court determined that Wickremesinghe whilst in the position of finance minister infringed fundamental rights by denying the funds for the local council elections in 2023. Wickremesinghe, 75, assumed office in 2022 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned as the president and argued that there was no money because of the crisis and that it was more important to first revive the economy rather than hold such elections.
On Tuesday, president Dissanayake, who was elected president last week, together with ten others appointed a cabinet of four, himself included, after which Harini Amarasuriya, the new Prime Minster of Sri Lanka, was sworn into office as the fifteenth Prime Minster of Sri Lanka.
