COLOMBO
\nSri Lanka\u2019s election commission indefinitely postponed local polls on Friday after the president \u2014 installed by parliament last year after his predecessor fled \u2014 refused to fund the vote.
\nThe March 9 polls would only have picked local councillors but would be the first electoral test for Ranil Wickremesinghe since he took office in July after months of protests over the island\u2019s worst-ever economic crisis.
\nThey were seen by many as a de facto referendum on unpopular austerity measures he has imposed as he seeks to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
\nBut the five-member election commission panel said the vote would not be held as scheduled as Wickremesinghe\u2019s administration had refused to provide the necessary $27 million and logistical support.
\nThe announcement came a day after Wickremesinghe warned parliament that holding an election during the economic crisis could be disastrous.
\n\u201cWe will not have a country if the economy does not develop,\u201d he said.
\nWickremesinghe, who replaced Gotabaya Rajapaksa after protesters stormed the presidential palace, has implemented swingeing tax hikes and price rises in an effort to secure the IMF bailout.
\nSri Lanka has seen more than a year of acute shortages of essentials along with hyperinflation, and in April defaulted on its $46 billion external debt.
\nOpposition MPs accused the president of using the economic crisis as an excuse to sabotage democracy.
\nWickremesinghe won a parliamentary vote to replace Rajapaksa with the backing of Rajapaksa\u2019s SLPP party but has no popular mandate.
\nAt the last local elections in 2018, his United National Party won just 10 per cent of the 340 councils, while conceding 231 to the SLPP.
\nThe IMF previously said its $2.9bn rescue depends on Sri Lanka\u2019s bilateral creditors \u2014 the biggest of them China \u2014 agreeing to restructure their debts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLOMBO Sri Lanka\u2019s election commission indefinitely postponed local polls on Friday after the president \u2014 installed by parliament last year after his predecessor fled \u2014 refused to fund the vote. The March 9 polls would only have picked local councillors but would be the first electoral test for Ranil Wickremesinghe since he took office in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-316126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n