Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been found guilty of delaying local elections. The country's Supreme Court found him guilty of "arbitrary and illegal conduct" for delaying the elections for more than a year. On Thursday (August 22), the Supreme Court gave this verdict.
Wickramasinghe is enjoying impunity as he continues to hold the office of President. Therefore, this judgment does not carry any immediate legal consequences for him. However, it is expected to have an impact on the presidential election to be held next month.
Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to resign in April 2022 due to an unprecedented economic crisis. Then veteran politician and former five-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe came to power.
Wickramasinghe promised to organize local and presidential elections after assuming office as president but did not keep it. Local elections were announced but he postponed it. After the mass movement, the first presidential election will be held on September 21.
The 75-year-old Ranil wants to hold power for another 5 years through this election. But he was found guilty in the court for not organizing the local elections before that.
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court all agreed that Ranil had failed to release funds for holding local government elections in March 2023. However, according to Ronil's administration, the money given to the state treasury was needed for the salaries and pensions of government employees.
The court said Ranil's "arbitrary and unlawful conduct" in preventing local elections violated constitutional rights. Besides, the court directed the Independent Electoral Commission to organize the local elections as soon as possible, but it should not disrupt the upcoming presidential election in any way.
At the same time, the state was also ordered to bear the legal expenses of the four petitioners seeking to postpone the election indefinitely. Ranil was earlier the Leader of Opposition in Parliament. But in 2022, Ranil was elected as the head of the interim government after Rajapakse Gotabaye resigned amid public protests over the economic crisis.
Ranil Wickremesinghe took a loan of 2.9 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in March 2023 to deal with the economic crisis in the country. For that, income tax has to be doubled and fuel subsidy stopped. Due to this, the prices of daily necessities have increased.
The local elections were supposed to be held in March last year. The vote reflected how the people reacted to the tough measures taken to secure IMF loans. Opposition lawmakers alleged that Ranil had used the economic crisis as an excuse to destroy democracy.
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