SJB Parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne said that what President
signaled implies that he would not hold the elections, he would protect
Rajapaksas for the rest of his term and he would do what he can.
It also seems that the President is moving towards a system that violates the
Constitution and laws related to elections.
Addressing the press conference held at the opposition leader's office in
Colombo today, he said that this is the first time that an election has been
obstructed deviating from the constitution and the law.
The rule of law is very important to a country.
By disrupting the governance, this country,
which has not received international support so far, is likely to delay further
international aid, and the President and the government should take
responsibility for it, he said.
All members of Samagi Jana Balawega were in United National Party.
The United
National Party constitution cannot be changed unless that leader is changed.
Therefore, in order to protect democracy, about 90% of the MPs and members of
that party formed the Samagi Jana Balavega Party.
It is clear that the government is moving towards an anti-democratic system that
violates the constitution of not holding the election. In the last budget, ten billion
rupees were allocated for the election to be held in 2023. The talk that there is no
money now is a blatant lie.
The printing costs of the May 2010 election were paid to the government press on
August 12, four months later of that year. The money was paid to the government
press for the expenses of the general election held on August 17, 2015 on
October 21.
The 2019 presidential election payments were made to the government printing press after eight months. In spite of that, declaring that ballot papers cannot be printed without paying money in advance, despite having all the necessary resources for printing, only for this election, is a premeditated trick to create hurdles thereby postpone the election.
The concerned officials should pay attention to the fact that the Sri Lanka Bar
Association has directly warned the relevant government officials including the
Treasury Secretary and the Government Printer not to engage in activities that
sabotage the holding of L.G .election.
Eran Wickramaratne warned that the Executive President, Parliament deciding to hold elections in the way they want is not only a violation of the law but also a usurpation of the people's right to sovereignty.
As the Article 104 of the Constitution prescribes every authority must support the
Election Commissioner to hold an election when it is called, and obstructing it is a
criminal offense and punishable with imprisonment of public officials, especially
heads of institutions, who have sworn to uphold the Constitution must be mindful
of its consequence.
Therefore, Eran Wickramaratne warned that public officials should act
honestly and thoughtfully, as there are many examples in the recent past that
even if the politicians called them to their offices and warned, or even illegal
orders are issued, the officials will end up being punished by engaging in acts that
are against the constitution.