By The elections scheduled for earlier this year were postponed on the grounds that Treasury funds were not available and now the Elections commissioner is once again in search of funds.
Civil society activist fear that upcoming elections could be postponed on the pretext of scarcity of funds.
There isa requirement Rs 2.2 billion for initial work and the Election Commissioner R.M.A.L. Ratnayake is helpless as there are no funds to conduct long-overdue local council elections.
The bill for election expenditure is approximately Rs 1.1 billion for the conduct of the poll: Rs. 100 million in the first 15 days after calling for elections, another Rs. 500 million in the next 15 days, and Rs. 500 million in the next 20 days. There is no assurance that the treasury will release these funds soon.
There is speculation that the ruling alliance may not be comfortable with local elections as the result may not be favourable to them and on the other hand neither the opposition parties are confident to face elections as they may not be able to get a majority that they desire at local elections.
