SL goes to polls amid Covid pandemic

Colombo, Aug 5 (IANS) Sri Lankans on Wednesday began voting in Parliamentary elections twice delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Voters have been asked to maintain social distancing and bring their own pens to the polls "with special booths set up for those who are quarantining " for a contest that will end months of constitutional limbo in Sri Lanka, said media reports. The country has been without a Parliament since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sacked the Assembly in March and then postponed elections scheduled for April citing the COVID-19 outbreak. Rajapaksa dismissed a constitutional article requiring him to summon parliament by early June, and has instead overseen one of the world's most stringent responses to the pandemic without the input or oversight of the legislative branch.
--IANS sdr/