UNP, SLFP share common ground on feasiblity of holding General Election on schedule

by Zacki Jabbar
The SLFP, which is contesting the Parliamentary Polls on the Podujana Peramuna ticket, shared common ground with the UNP, on the feasibility of holding the elections as scheduled on June 20 when the two parties along with 32 others met the Elections Commission in Colombo, last week.

General Secretaries of the UNP and SLFP, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam and Dayasiri Jayasekara respectively, who not long ago worked together in the post-2015 government, but parted ways when their leaders fell out, had urged the Elections Commission to take a final decision, on whether the Parliamentary Polls which had been postponed from April 25 to June 20, could in fact take place on time, with the number of Coronavirus infected persons increasing by the day.

Informed sources said that the Elections Commission headed by Mahinda Deshapriya and comprising Ratnajeevan Hoole and Nalin Abeysekera, remained non committal, but Deshapriya gave an indication of what to expect when he said that they were doing their best to keep to the set date, but certainly not over the dead bodies of voters. The Commission is also being cautious by delaying the issue of preferential numbers to the candidates.

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