The Election Commission will not extend the time of the poll in view of the Covid-19 regulations, going by the lessons learnt in ‘trial’ elections held so far. An Election Commission spokesperson said the health guidelines issued by the Health Services Director General Dr. Anil Jasinghe which includes washing hands and social distancing norms were observed during the mock elections, and came to a conclusion that the poll time need not exceed and it will be held as usual from 7am to 4pm.
However, the Commission members will convene next week to take a final decision on the modalities of conducting the poll. The Director General of Health Services has issued a set of guidelines to hold the election, post Covid-19.
Another trial election was held yesterday in Minuwangoda covering the Gampaha district from 9am to 12.30pm.
It was one among several trial elections held yesterday and 15 such trials are planned islandwide.
There is no need to increase the number of polling stations in view of Covid-19 health guidelines since already there are a limited number of voters registered at each polling station, he said.
The spokesman added that the election machinery has been set in motion and everything is in order to hold the parliamentary election on August 5.
The Commission gazetted the preferential numbers for the candidates last week and the new poll date was announced on Wednesday.
“All three members of the NEC, unanimously decided to hold the election on August 5,” the Commission’s Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya told the media.
The general election 2020 was initially scheduled for April 25 and was put off for June 20 after the country went under lockdown for over two months due to the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.