The fundamental rights (FR) petition filed by the National People’s Power (NPP) challenging the postponement of Local Government election has been fixed for consideration by the Supreme Court.

Thereby, the application will be taken up for consideration before a Supreme Court judge bench on June 09, 2023.

The petition was called before Supreme Court’s Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, Priyantha Jayawardena, Vijith Malalgoda and Gamini Amarasekara this morning.

MP Dr. Harini Amarasuriya and former MP Sunil Handunnetti, representing the MPP, lodged a petition before the country’s top court, alleging that the people’s fundamental rights including the right to vote have been violated by the government’s move to defer the 2023 Local Government election, which was initially scheduled to be held on March 09.

Following the Local Government election in 2018, the next election was originally scheduled to be held in 2022.

However, the local elections were deferred indefinitely due to the exacerbated economic situation and the political instability in the country, while the term of office of local government bodies too was extended for a period of one year.

Eventually, as the Local Government election was planned to be held on March 09, 2023 the Printing Department and the Election Commission made repeated requests from the Treasury, seeking funds to prepare for the polls. However, the printing of ballot papers stalled without sufficient funds.

Accordingly, the election was put off until 25 April only to be deferred once again.