Cabinet Spokesman and Minister of Health and Indigenous medicine Rajitha Senaratne shed doubt on whether the parliamentary election will be held in June as promised at the weekly Cabinet press briefing yesterday.

He said that elections will be held only after the Maithripala Sirisena government completes all the constitutional and electoral reforms which it had promised to carry out in the run up to the January 8 Presidential election.

“People are more interested in  reforms than in any mid-term elections to parliament. At any rate, the present parliament has more than a year of life left, “ he pointed out. "Even if it takes 200 days, electoral reforms have to be introduced since it was a campaign promise,” he said.

The present parliament was elected in April 2010 and its tenure lasts until April 2016.

The electoral reform issue has dragged the 19th Amendment from being introduced as there is some debate on whether the new electoral system could be applied to this coming election, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Ajith P Perera told last Sunday (22) edition of 'The Nation' newspaper. However, Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka told the same newspaper that the government can carry out the changes before the election.

However, Ajith P Perera told 'The Nation' that if the government does not call for an election on April 23, it will break a key promise. He also said that if the government takes further time it could end up procrastinating continuously on this or that. There will be no compromises on the 100 Day Program, he asserted, clearly indicating that the election will be called for on April 23.