Govt. has taken steps to ensure free and fair polls: President

President Maithripala Sirisena says that the present Government has taken steps to establish a strong foundation for the free and fair elections in the country through the 19th Amendment of the Constitution while ending the corruption that prevailed in the election system of the country before 8 January 2015. 

He made these remarks while participating in the inauguration ceremony of the Asian Electoral Stakeholder Forum held in the Galadari Hotel, Colombo on Monday.

Expressing his views, the President further said that the objective of the present Government is to ensure democracy in the country by holding all the elections of the country independently in a free and fair manner. 

President Sirisena recalled that, prior to 8 January 2015, the election system of the country was corrupted. He mentioned how the State media institutions were used to violate the election rules in the 2015 Presidential Election and the way public funds were destroyed by using the Treasury for the victory of the election.  President Sirisena said that today, Sri Lanka is a country which has a strong democratic foundation as well as a country which strengthened the fairness and unbiased nature of the Judiciary, and further said that, according to the latest reports, of the Asian countries, Sri Lanka has reached a high position in terms of the impartiality in the Judiciary.

The President also said that the Elections Commission has been empowered to conduct impartial, and free and fair elections, free of corruption. 

In order to secure the broad establishment of democracy and security when holding elections within the region, the Asian Electoral Stakeholder Forum is held to come to terms with a common agreement which can influence the active stakeholders within Asia and outside the region.

This Conference creates a platform to hold a broad discussion on the elections and democracy within the region where it can be considered as a broad collection of the region connected with elections. This year, the fourth Conference of Asian Electoral Stakeholder Forum will be taking place, and it is the first of its kind to be held in South Asia. The Election Commission of Sri Lanka and the Asian Network for Free Elections hold sponsorship for this event.

Invitees from 45 countries were present at the Conference held under the theme ‘A collective effort for a broad establishment of democracy and security in elections with transparency of excellence and order’, where more than 15 Asian regional electoral commissions, more than 100 election-monitoring organisations worldwide, a number of foreign embassies and high commissions in Sri Lanka, government and non-government organisations, and United Nations and inter-regional agencies were present. Critical issues, such as the current democratic status of Sri Lanka, the challenges and the process of elections of the region, and fine approaches that can be utilised to upgrade the process of elections, will be broadly discussed at the Conference. The Conference will conclude tomorrow.

Attorney General Jayantha Jayasooriya, Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya, PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi, Free Media Network Asia Representative Damaso Magdualz and others were present at this event. The book ‘From Donoughmore Constitutional Systems to Election Commission Systems’ was presented to President Sirisena by the Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya.