Lawyers of the Aragalaya claim EC Chairman promised to take legal action against officials

The Lawyers of the Aragalaya (LA) says that Chairman of the National Elections Commission, Nimal Punchihewa, gave an undertaking to them to take legal action against the public officials who delayed cooperating with the Commission to hold the local council polls.

Speaking to journalists, outside the Elections Secretariat, in Rajagiriya, where the LA organisation members and other protest leaders met with Punchihewa, on Wednesday, organisation’s convener, Attorney-at-Law Manoj Nanayakkara, said that they raised the issue of the Election Commission failing to take any action against the officials who delayed the elections.

“We pointed out to him that Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs, Neil Hapuhinne, had issued a statement to suspend the election process. The Commission should have lodged a complaint and taken legal action against him. Nothing of the sort has happened so far. Hapuhinne had been summoned and inquiries were made. That’s all.

“As per Article 104 of the Constitution, all public officials are duty bound to extend their support to the Elections Commission to hold elections. Anyone who does otherwise is committing a punishable offence. The Elections Commission should lodge complaints against them and commence the process of instituting legal action against such officials. There is the IGP, Secretary to the Treasury and the Government Printer. All these officials had tried to derail the elections process, from time to time.

“When we demanded action, Chairman Punchihewa promised that he would submit the matter of taking legal actions against those officials, in the form of a proposal to the Elections Commission, on Friday (24), and would take actions accordingly.

“We also pointed out to him that such action is necessary because otherwise the actions by these officials would set a wrong precedent for other public sector officials. In future, too, the officials will delay elections as they wish, citing various reasons,” Attorney-at-Law Nanayakkara said.