The presidential elections in Sri\nLanka would be held between November 15 and December 7, Election Commission\nChairman Mahinda Deshapriya has said, clarifying that according to\nconstitutional provisions the polls must be held one month before the end of\nthe current president\u2019s term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deshapriya\u2019s clarification on the\nconstitutional provisions regarding the date for the next presidential\nelections came after President Maithripala Sirisena told presspersons last week\nin New Delhi that the presidential polls are likely to take place on December\n7. President Sirisena\u2019s five-year term is scheduled to end on January 8, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe election must be held one\nmonth before the end of the current president\u2019s term,\u201d Deshapriya said,\naddressing the Voters\u2019 Day events held at the south Colombo suburb of Moratuwa\non Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe nearest date the election\ncan be held is November 15 as November 10 is a Sunday and November 12 is a Poya\nDay (a Buddhist holy day). December 7 is the furthest day the election can be\nheld,\u201d Deshapriya said, adding the Election Commission would be permitted to\nhold the election on any day between November 15 and December 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sirisena was elected for a five\nyear-term on January 8, 2015 when he challenged the incumbent Mahinda\nRajapaksa. The former strongman had called snap elections two years ahead of\nthe end of his second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sirisena backed by the then main\nOpposition United National Party (UNP) became the common Opposition candidate\nagainst his former boss Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Sirisena has not so far\ndeclared his intention for a re-run, his souring of relationships with the UNP\nof Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has indicated that the UNP would be\nfielding its own candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sirisena in October last year\nsacked Wickremesinghe, who elevated him to the presidency, and replaced him\nwith Rajapaksa. The move led to a constitutional impasse, which lasted over 50\ndays. After the intervention by the Supreme Court, Wickremesinghe was restored\nas the prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sirisena speaking to presspersons\nin New Delhi after attending Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s swearing-in\nceremony, said he had not decided on seeking another term in the election that\nis due by the year-end.\n\n\u201cI am not in a hurry\nto decide whether to stand,\u201d Sirisena said. Sirisena has faced criticism over\nhis leadership after a series of suicide bombings killed 258 people in the\nisland nation on April 21.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The presidential elections in Sri Lanka would be held between November 15 and December 7, Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya has said, clarifying that according to constitutional provisions the polls must be held one month before the end of the current president\u2019s term. Deshapriya\u2019s clarification on the constitutional provisions regarding the date for the next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1801,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions\/1801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}