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President Mahinda Rajapaksa will announce a presidential election tomorrow (Monday), very well informed sources disclosed yesterday on condition of anonymity. But it was not clear whether it would be a mere announcement of an election or a formal declaration which would start the process of fixing a date for the election in terms of the Constitution and the Presidential Elections Act.
Such an announcement will end the suspense of what will come first – a presidential or parliamentary election with both possibilities having been earnestly considered by the president and his inner circle since the General Sarath Fonseka factor was produced, conjuror-like, out of the opposition top hat.
Tomorrow’s announcement/declaration is most likely to be made at an astrologically propitious time.
As out political correspondent has reported in today’s Political Watch column, the Elections Commissioner has a hand in deciding the date of a presidential election once it is declared, but the president has considerable muscle, within constitutional timeframes, of deciding on when the parliamentary election will be held.
In any event, the six year term of the present parliament runs out in April next year and a parliamentary election is mandatory with the incumbent House automatically standing dissolved at the end of this six year period.
Political analysts do not rule out the possibility of the presidential and parliamentary election campaigns over-lapping although it is unlikely that both elections will be held on the same day.
``That’s a matter that is not entirely in the hands of the President. Even if the President should want that, it is the Elections Commissioner who must fix the day for a presidential election and that cannot be done without his concurrence,’’ sources familiar with the law said.
