When, when? Polls chief quizzed even in traffic jam

Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya is a man in the news these days with elections being the talk-of-the-town.

While it is well-known that he is constantly hounded by the media to get the exact date on when the next election will be held, what many don’t know is that it’s the question that he gets asked often by even strangers he encounter on a daily basis. In this case, it was literally, ‘the man-on-the-street’. “

“Recently I was caught in a traffic jam,” said Deshapriya, “and the man in the next car rolled down the shutter and shouted out to me ‘ Comasaristhuma, kawada- da chandaya?’ (Commissioner, when is the election). I replied,’ langadima, langadima’ (very soon; very soon)“, he told a group of women journalists he met this week.