In Sri Lanka, the Election Commission has informed the Supreme Court that General Elections cannot be held on 20th of June, as scheduled because of the current COVID situation in the country.

This was stated by lawyer representing the Commission Chairman during hearing of multiple Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions challenging the date set for the elections.

The commission said, it would require nine to eleven weeks after the health authorities green signal in order to make preparations, explaining that curfew and restrictions on movement were resulting in a serious reduction of manpower and workable hours.

The hearing before the five-judge bench commenced on Monday and will continue tomorrow. Sri Lanka’s Parliament was dissolved on 2nd of March with polling declared for 25th of April. However, the poll date had to be postponed due to COVID crisis.

Election laws require that new Parliament would meet within three months of the dissolution which is not possible to meet.

Opposition parties and civil society groups had demanded reinstatement of old Parliament but the government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has refused to do so.

The FR petitions were filed by these groups challenging the date of elections not meeting the stipulated criteria.