Election Commission to prepare to hold elections under new system in Jan. 2019

By Chathuri Dissanyake 

The Election Commission, during its meeting yesterday, decided to go ahead with preparatory work to hold Provincial Council elections under the new system in January next year. 

Members of the Commission decided to go ahead with preparatory work in anticipation of a decision to hold PC elections under the new system within the first two weeks of January next year, Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya told Daily FT. 

“We have to prepare everything from scratch to hold the elections under the new system. We have to prepare new forms, census of officials will have to be done, new procedures have to be outlined, and instructions have to be prepared. We have to design a whole new system,” he said. 

The Commission is able to hold elections under the old system without much preparatory work, he said adding that the new system demands a lot of work. 

“Under the old system we only have to print the forms, nothing else is necessary, but the new system needs a complete overhaul of the existing practices,” he said. 

The Commission will also finalise the 2018 electoral register to be used in the upcoming elections by the end of this month.