File Picture
An all-party meeting convened by Sri Lanka’s election commission to decide whether to hold parliamentary polls in June remained inconclusive, party members said.
According to report by a news agency, The Elections Commission (EC) convened an all-party meeting to decide whether to hold parliamentary polls in June amid fears that the coronavirus could spread if movement curbs were lifted further. However, the talks ended without an agreement, the participant said.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa dissolved the opposition-controlled Parliament on March 2, six months ahead of the schedule, and called a snap election on April 25 to elect a new 225-member House.
However, the election commission in mid-April postponed the parliamentary polls by nearly two months to June 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected 889 people and claimed nine lives in the island nation.
The new date clashed with the constitutional imperative that the new Parliament has to meet within three months since its dissolution.
Several opposition parties and civil society organisations have filed petitions in the Supreme Court, arguing that according to the Constitution the elections must be held and a new Parliament must be summoned within three months of the dissolution order.
