Have both elections on the same day

There is an opportunity for the citizens to elect their executive leader for a new term towards the end of the year as a requirement of the existing constitution.

At this election citizens elect only the Executive President. The election for the Legislature will be after March 2020 if dissolved prematurely, or somewhere in August 2020 otherwise.

In the event of the President and the ruling party in the Legislature being from two different political parties with two different agendas, the country will again be in a difficult situation as is happening now.

If the elected President is from a party opposed to the current ruling legislators and on having reduced executive power, when compared to that of the current president, there will be conflicting issues until such time the elections are held for the Legislature. This situation will be there for about three months and the country will be in chaos with possible pandemonium in Parliament similar to what was experienced in 2018.

My appeal therefore to the Legislature is to come to an agreement by a twothird majority as required and pass legislation to have both elections on one day. This way we can avoid any conflict between the Executive and the Legislature as the voters will be in the same frame of mind when voting.

In this situation, if the current constitution is to continue, it would be ideal if the Presidential candidates put forwards their teams for the Cabinet of Ministers in the election manifesto. This will help the voters to identify the team they wish to vote for. Also, political parties will then can keep out members accused of previous corruption at the nominations.

It is however important that the voters vote wisely, at the Presidential election, as the elected President not only is going to lead the country but also to represent our country internationally. It is therefore necessary that the elected is politically mature, globally acceptable and without any history of corruption, communal bias or criminal background.

As the basis of electing members to the Legislature is district wise, a situation will arise where there are no elected members for some electorates. To compensate this issue, at least one elected member should be nominated from each district for the Cabinet of Ministers in the election manifesto.

Piyasiri Kalubowila Rajagiriya