The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) yesterday vehemently opposed the Elections Commissioner’s decision to postpone yet another time the local government elections in the North and the East scheduled for October 23, 2004, to April 23, 2005.
National Organiser of the SLMC K. A. Baiz told The Island that the elections must be held as scheduled at least in the so-called Muslim areas in the East.
The people, he said, were without proper representation at the grassroots level and that hampered the development of infrastructure and local administration.
It was not fair for the people to be thus deprived of their right to elect their representatives to local government institutions, he said.
He said it was ridiculous to keep on postponing polls consecutively, and called upon the authorities concerned not to make a mockery of democracy.
The needs and aspirations of the democratic people in the North and the East, he said, must not be compromised because of a few who resisted the revival of democracy in those parts of the country.
Mr. Baiz said the SLMC would agitate for elections to be held for the benefit of the people.
However, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) welcomed the postponement, which it said, was prudent and timely in that the situation in the North and the East was not conducive for an electoral exercise.
Speaking for the TNA, N. Raviraj MP said polls could wait at a time when priority should be given to setting up of an interim administration after resuming the now stalled peace talks.
Meanwhile, Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake had left for Cameroon on an election-monitoring mission in that country.
