Committee to be appointed to amend laws to grant voting rights to Sri Lankans residing overseas

The Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval to examine the necessary legal amendments and formulate new laws to safeguard the voting rights of Sri Lankan citizens residing overseas.

As per the Article 3 of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the sovereignty rights reserved with people is used in an election.

The right to vote is reserved only by the citizens living within Sri Lanka and registered their names in the electoral register as per the elections law.

According to the current elections law there is no provision to secure any method to cast votes for the citizens residing overseas or no law has been formulated in this regard.

However, many Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, Philippines have formulated laws to enable their citizens residing overseas to cast votes and it has been recognized as a timely requirement to amend such types of laws for Sri Lanka as well.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers granted their concurrence to take actions by the Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Governments to appoint a committee comprised of officials in the Elections Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employments and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Governments as well as in the other Ministries and institutions to study particulars relevant to amend laws and formulation of new laws to safeguard voting rights of citizens residing overseas.