Act of Parliament · As enacted
Registration of Electors (Special Provisions) Act 2013
Official English translation. The Sinhala text prevails. Open the official Sinhala text, official PDF on documents.gov.lk
Official translationFrom Department of Government Printing, unchanged
s 1Short title
This Act may be cited as the Registration of Electors
(Special Provisions) Act, No. 27 of 2013.
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the
Registration of Electors Act, No. 44 of 1980, any citizen of
Sri Lanka—
who is or had been an internally displaced person;
whose name appeared in the register of electors for any electoral district in the Northern Province or
Eastern Province for any year, until the end of the year 2009; and
whose name has not been entered in any register in operation subsequent to the year 2009, shall on proof of the matters specified in paragraphs (a), (b)
and (c) and on production of a certificate issued by the Grama
Niladhari of the area in which he is presently residing, to the effect that he is or he had been an internally displaced person, be entitled to apply to the registering officer of the electoral district within which he was permanently resident prior to
May 18, 2009, to be registered in the register of electors of such electoral district.
The application referred to in subsection (1), shall be made on or before the date specified by the Commissioner of
Elections by notice published in the Gazette.
Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), the entitlement granted under that subsection shall be extended to the children of a citizen referred to in subsection (1) —
who had not attained the age of eighteen years on the date on which such citizen became an internally displaced person and have attained the age of eighteen years or more on the date on which the revision commenced in respect of the register in operation, at the time in which the application is made;
who were born after such citizen became an internally displaced person and have attained the age of eighteen years or more on the date on which the revision commenced in respect of the register in operation, at the time in which the application is made ; and
whose name has not been entered in any register in operation subsequent to the year 2009, on production of the birth certificate of such child sought to be registered and a certificate issued by the Grama Niladhari of the area in which he is presently residing on proof of the matters specified in paragraphs (a) or (b) and (c) above.
The registering officer shall prepare a list of names of persons referred to in section 2 and shall give notice in the
Gazette and in at least one newspaper each in the Sinhalese,
English and Tamil languages that such list has been completed and is open for inspection at all reasonable hours of the day at the office of the registering officer.
Any person who has applied to be registered in any register of electors for any electoral district in the Northern
Province or Eastern Province and whose name has not appeared in the list referred to in subsection (1), may appeal in writing to the registering officer within one week of the notice published in the Gazette.
The provisions of subsection (8) to (16) of section 14
of the Registration of Electors Act, No. 44 of 1980 shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to objections and appeals against decisions of the registering officer.
If upon such appeal and inquiry, the registering officer decides not to include the name of such appellant in the
Supplementary Register referred to in section 4, the aggrieved appellant may appeal to the revising officer within one week of the decision of the registering offecer and the provisions of subsection (2) to (5) of section 15 of the Registration of
Electors Act, No. 44 of 1980 shall mutatis mutandis apply to an appeal made under this paragraph.
s 4Supplementary Register
The registering officer of each Electoral District shall prepare and certify a Supplementary Register containing the names of the persons whose names appear in the list prepared under section 3 after inquiry and adjudication if any, and finalize such Register in terms of that section:
Provided that, the registering officer may certify the
Supplementary Register during the pendency of an appeal to the revising officer and shall thereafter enter in, or expunge from, such Register, the name of any person in accordance with the decision of the revising officer on the determination of such appeal.
No person whose name appears in the
Supplementary Register shall be entitled to have his name entered in any other register of electors, notwithstanding that he may be qualified to have his name entered in two or more registers.
No perosn shall be entitled to have his name entered more than once in the same register, notwithstanding that he may be qualified to have his name so entered.
Notwithstanding the provisions of this Act, if a person whose name appears in the Supplementary Register has his name appearing in any other register of electors and uses his vote in two or more electoral districts, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction before a Magistrate be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine not exceeding Rupees One Hundred Thousand or to both such imprisonment and fine.
Any person referred to in section 2, who furnishes false information or forged documents for any purpose referred to in this Act, shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction before a Magistrate be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to a fine not exceeding
Rupees fifty thousand or to both such imprisonment and fine.
This Act shall be in operation for a period of two years commencing from the date of operation of this Act.
The Minister may, at any time within one month prior to the expiration of the period of operation of this Act, by
Order published in the Gazette, extend for a further period, the operation of the Act, so however that the aggregate period of any one extension shall not exceed two years from the date of the extension so granted.
The Order made under subsection (2) shall be operative when the signature of the Minister is affixed thereto and every such Order shall be published in the Gazette.
Every Order made under subsection (2) shall be placed before Parliament for its approval within a period of three months from the date of publication of such Order in the
Gazette.
A notification specifying the date on which
Parliament has approved the Order shall be published in the
Gazette.
s 7Sinhala text to prevail in case of inconsistency
In the event of any inconsistency between the Sinhala and Tamil texts of this Act, the Sinhala text shall prevail.
s 8Interpretation
In this Act—
“Commissioner of Elections” has the same meaning as in the Registration of Electors Act, No. 44 of 1980;
“internally displaced person” means a citizen of Sri
Lanka who was permanently resident in the
Northern Province or Eastern Province and who was forced or obliged to leave his residence at any time prior to May 18, 2009, as a result of any action of a terrorist militant or other group, and currently resides in Sri Lanka outside his original place of residence in the Northern Province or
Eastern Province or had re-settled in his original place of residence subsequent to the date on which the revision of the register of electors for the year 2012 commenced ;
“registering officer” has the same meaning as in the
Registration of Electors Act, No. 44 of 1980;
“register in operation” has the same meaning as in the Registration of Electors Act No. 44 of 1980;
“revising officer” has the same meaning as in the
Registration of Electors Act, No. 44 of 1980.