Prevention Is Better Than Cure

A proposal on conducting the election with Covid-19

- Dr. V. P. C. Dassanayake

It is a known fact that, it takes a longer time period to eliminate Covid-19 from the world. Therefore, as a country it is not satisfactory to wait until this is over as it is not likely to end in a few weeks or even in a few months. However it is possible to have it under control and practice safe behaviours and live with it. To live with it, “Prevention is better than cure” must always be in our mind.

At present, it is discussed whether to postpone the election or hold it as planned. As the number of active patients are at a gradual decrement and having no patients being identified outside the clusters at the time of writing this article, it is noticeable that Sri Lanka is currently under control. But there is no guarantee that at the time of publishing this article it stays the same or a new cluster or clusters are possible to be identified. This applies to the date of the decision of the election as well. Possibility of identifying a new cluster at any time should not be ignored. Accordingly, if the election is to be postponed the question arises about the time period of postponing it. In my opinion, the election should not be postponed and should proceed while taking all the precautions required even in a situation of having the pandemic fully under control. Hence, the purpose of writing this article is to propose suggestions on how to take the required precautions while having the election. This is mainly divided into three stages depending on the time such as preelection time, voting time and postelection including counting of votes and celebrating results.

PRE-ELECTION TIME