ELECTION DAY FOR SLC
Mohan, Ravin allowed to contest
Challenging their disqualification from the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) elections in the Court of Appeal (COA) yesterday, Mohan de Silva and Ravin Wickramaratne were allowed to contest – albeit not for their originally intended posts
– after recording a settlement.
The Court also recorded that the settlement would not ‘effect the rights of the parties’ to the application.
De Silva and Wickramaratne had filed writ applications in the COA against the decision of the Advisory Committee appointed by Sports Minister Harin Fernando to hear appeals related to the elections, that barred them from contesting today’s SLC elections.
The settlement was reached after a counsel representing the AG’S department on behalf of the Sports Minister, stated that they had no objections towards de Silva contesting the Secretary’s post and Wickramaratne contesting the Vice President and Assistant Secretary posts.
“A legal officer representing the Attorney General’s department informed court that the Minister of Sports had no objections for me to contest the Secretary’s post and for Ravin to contest the Vice President’s post. Since it was not our intention to seek the final relief prayed for in our petition, to ask for an interim injunction and stop the elections until our nominations are cleared– because we knew the impending dangers of ICC suspension – we had to take a decision in the right spirit and accept what was offered to us (by the AG’S department),” de Silva said, adding that the Minister had informed the Elections Committee of the same, to be included in the final list of candidates for the elections.
De Silva had initially intended to contest for the SLC presidency, against Jayantha Dharmadasa, while Wickramaratne was tipped to seek election as the new treasurer.
They had been disqualified by the
Advisory Committee on the grounds that their nomination violated regulations in the Sports Law, but it appears that both candidates have now been cleared on technical grounds, on the basis of specific language used in the objections filed against their candidacy.
While the Advisory Committee in its findings had disqualified de Silva, it had done so on objections by Dharmadasa against de Silva’s nomination for the posts of President and Vice President, and thereby had not mentioned an objection to him contesting as Secretary.
Wickramaratne had handed in nominations for the posts of Vice President, Assistant Secretary and Treasurer, but the committee had recommended that he was ineligible for the posts of Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer.
“I wasn’t even nominated to be an Assistant Treasurer,” Wickramaratne said. “Perhaps it was a typo, by the advisory committee,” he replied when asked how it was that he was disqualified for a post he was not nominated for.
With this development Shammi Silva is set to contest against Dharmadasa for the President’s post, while Wickramaratnewill be in a three-horse race, along with Arjuna Ranatunga and K. Mathivanan for the two Vice Presidents posts.
De Silva meanwhile, will stand against Nishantha Ranatunga for Secretary. Chryshantha Kapuwatte will challenge Hirantha Perera for the position of Assistant Secretary, while either Lasantha Wickramasinghe or Eastman Narangoda will be elected
as Treasurer. Dharmadasa’s camp has fielded Dr. Sanjaya Sedara Senarath as its nominee for the Assistant Treasurers position, where he will be up against Lalith Rambukwella.
Minister Fernando was named as the first respondent in the petition, while Secretary of the Ministry of Sports was the second respondent and the Director General of Sports at the Ministry of Sports was the third respondent.
Sanjaya Rajaratnam ASG, Sumathi Dharwardhena Senior DSG and Manohara Jayasinghe SSC appeared as their counsel and stated: “...the 1st Respondent Minister and the 2nd Respondent secretary will be informed that the Petitioner in C.A. Writ Application 55/2019 will be eligible to contest for the post of Secretary as the Sri Lanka Cricket Election to be held tomorrow. With regard to the Petitioner in Court of Appeal Writ Application 56/2019 the 1st Respondent Minister and the 2nd Respondent secretary will be informed that the Petitioner in C.A. 56/2019 is eligible to contest for the post of Vice President and Assistant Secretary at the Sri Lanka Cricket Election to be held tomorrow.”
Nishantha Ranatunga meanwhile speaking to the Daily Mirror said that he was confident of their group’s chances at the elections. “We are confident of coming out on top at the elections. The case is not yet over, and our rights are yet intact. The question now arises how a candidate can be found ineligible from contesting one post, and be eligible to contest another,” Nishantha, the secretarial aspirant also said.