By NNN-PTI,
Colombo : Sri Lanka needs to revamp its “toothless” Election Commission by taking a lesson or two from the Indian poll body, which has been credited with holding the world’s biggest ballot exercise, the island’s Election Commissioner has said.
Dayananda Dissanayake lauded the Indian election commission as an independent body and said there was a need to establish an organisation based on the Indian model in Sri Lanka to ensure free and fair elections.
He also called for orderly polls at the forthcoming provincial council elections in Central and North-western provinces to be held tomorrow.
On the present commission, set up under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, Dissanayake told a news conference that it “lacked teeth”, the Daily Mirror reported.
“It is just a commission. The experts who drafted proposals for establishment of this commission had not considered loopholes present in the system. I believe it is because they had no practical knowledge of the subject,” he said.
“In India, the Elections Commissioner can reject a request by the government to conduct polls. Such a system should be adopted in Sri Lanka as well,” he said.
He said the Indian Constitution writers had drafted it with “foresight and vision,” but the 17th Amendment which among other things provided for independent election commissions in Sri Lanka had shortcomings.