The Election Commission is expected to consult the caretaker Government shortly, on the indefinite delay of parliamentary elections and postponement of appointing a new government, in a bid to avoid a possible constitutional crisis.
The prevailing health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has postponed everything including mandatory government business and a crucial parliamentary election.
If the new Parliament cannot be convened by early June, that is, calculating the additional time allowed by the country’s supreme law to convene Parliament after a general election, a constitutional crisis would be unavoidable, authoritative sources said.
Election Commission sources pointed out that the President’s proclamation has set May 14 as the date to convene the new Parliament. “If due to some unavoidable situation such as the health crisis that has gripped the country today, Parliament cannot be convened by May 14, the President can postpone the date further, but the new date has to be within three months of his original proclamation of calling for elections,” the sources said.
This has been clearly spelt out in Article 70 (5) (a) and (c) of the Constitution, the sources pointed out.
The legal experts said, there were two options to overcome this crisis. One is to convene Parliament under emergency laws and amend the particular Sub Article which spells out time periods. The other option would be to seek Supreme Court intervention.
“In Sri Lanka there is no precedent of Supreme Court intervening in a situation like this but in other countries, “the Doctrine of Necessity” has been applied to seek Supreme Court intervention to delay either holding elections or convening of a new parliament,” the experts said.
The Election was initially fixed for April 25 but the Election Commission informed weeks ago that the polls will be delayed indefinitely due to the current situation.
Due to the spread of the global pandemic COVID-19, the country has remained under a lock-down for weeks and in certain areas police curfew has been imposed while the Government, health officials and security forces joined hands to prevent the disease from getting out of hand. The number of positive cases in Sri Lanka is still in the manageable range but the Government Medical Officers’ Association has warned that it might shoot up in the coming days.