Sri Lankan Supreme Court told parliamentary election can be held on June 20 under health guidelines

Sri Lanka's scheduled parliamentary election, which is on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak, can be held on June 20 under strict adherence to the health guidelines, the government told the Supreme Court on Friday.

This came a day after Sri Lanka's independent election commission said it cannot hold parliamentary elections on June 20 as planned because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Sri Lanka in mid-April postponed the parliamentary elections by nearly two months to June 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak that has till now killed nine people and infected over 1,000 in the island nation.

President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on March 2 dissolved Parliament, six month ahead of schedule and called a snap election on April 25.

Hearing a petition on the fifth day of the plea filed by the Opposition and civil society groups on Friday to challenge President Rajapaksa's dismissal of Parliament to hold snap polls, the country's top court was informed that the elections were very much possible on June 20 with adherence to strict health guidelines.

The election could be held with certain precautions in place," the lawyer representing President Rajapaksa's Secretary said to a five member bench of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court.

The lawyer produced a letter from Anil Jasinghe, Director General of Health Services, that in spite of COVID-19 pandemic situation the election can happen under quarantine regulations.

During the fourth day of hearing yesterday, the Election Commission's lawyers had told the apex court that it would not be possible to hold the parliamentary election on June 20 as scheduled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The further hearing of the case has been postponed until May 26.

Sri Lanka has till now reported 1,060 cases of coronavirus with nine deaths, local media reported.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)