Lanka election chief warns against delaying local polls

Sri Lanka's Election Commission today warned against continuous delay in holding local body elections in the country, saying it will force people to lose faith in democracy.
"It is no good to delay elections, people will lose faith in democracy," Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya told reporters.
The elections for over 300 local councils were due in 2015, but they were postponed to devise a new electoral system.
The government wants to change the current proportional representation system to a mixed system of first past the post and proportional representation in the proposed system.
The delay, however, has been attributed to the work in redesigning the electoral boundaries by a delimitation committee.

The previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration was accused of carrying out delimitation to suit the needs of certain individuals.

The report of the committee has been delayed and the Joint Opposition has accused both partners in the ruling coalition for delaying the elections for political reasons.
Deshapriya said there was no attempt to delay the election for political purposes and the delay was due to the delimitation work needing more time.
He said the election would not be possible before May this year as the Election Commission would want time to look at the new council wards after de-limitatation.