^{File photograph: Shavendra Silva}

One of the three members of Sri Lanka’s election commission expressed his fear of disagreeing with the war crimes accused head of the army, ahead of a meeting that took place on Monday which announced the scheduling of parliamentary elections.

In a piece published on Saturday, Ratnajeevan Hoole said that the inclusion of army chief Shavendra Silva, who currently leads Sri Lanks’s coronavirus rask force, and Director General of Health Services Anil Jasinghe was to “arm-twist the Commission into agreeing to 28 May for elections”.

“By whom and on what basis were Dr. Anil Jasinghe, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva and Acting IGP C.D. Wickramaratne chosen as consultants?,” he added

“And then why Lieutenant General Silva? He faces still unresolved charges by the UNHRC and many human rights organizations, under his command responsibility during the war, of massacring tens of thousands of Tamils. As a Tamil, I am scared of arguing with him on 20 April when we meet.”

“The Acting IGP Wickremaratne was warned by the Commission during the Presidential Elections on the impending problems at Chemmalai (Sinhalese colonized name Gurukanada) as a result of the police not serving a court order to desist from cremating a Buddhist monk on temple premises. He promised to act but did not. Violence flared up. Subsequently at the Commission I pointed out many election violations on which the police took no action. He then went through the motions of taking notes and promised to act. Half a year later, nothing.”

See the full piece from Colombo Telegraph here.

After meeting on Monday, the commission set parliamentary elections for June 20. Hoole told the Associated Press that the commission could postpone the election further if needed.