Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-10-17

Making provisions for the control of election expenses

- For the proper exercise of the universal suffrage which is an integral part of the peoples sovereignty, conducting of free and fair elections is an absolute necessity. If an election is to be held in a free and fair manner, it is necessary to have the true reflection of the opinion of the people in exercising their vote without any influence and if any political party, a group or a candidate spends money lavishly with no control it will cause a considerable effect on the choice of the people.

Many countries including India have introduced legislation to control election expenses to ensure the true reflection of the peoples' opinion and it has been found that such kind of a control on the election expenses will also help to reduce illegal acts, violent incidents as well as corruptions. In the elections held in Sri Lanka prior to 1977 there were laws in force to obtain Reports of expenses borne by the candidates but under the present system of elections such provisions have not been enshrined. The Election Commission has reported that a basic consensus has been reached in this regard, after a discussion with the Secretaries and representatives of the recognized political parties and the legal fraternity.

Accordingly, the proposal made by H.E. the President Maithripala Sirisena, to amend the existing election laws and also to enact new laws to enable to obtain the Reports of election expenses incurred by political parties, groups and the candidates and to impose a ceiling on such expenditure, was approved by the Cabinet.