PM confirms govt. decision to end use of indelible ink at elections

Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya on Wednesday said the government would abolish the longstanding practice of marking voters’ fingers with indelible ink at elections, describing it as an outdated and costly procedure that has become redundant since voter identification through the National Identity Card (NIC) was made compulsory. Responding to a question raised by Matara District NPP MP Ajantha Gammeddage in Parliament on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said the Cabinet of Ministers had approved a proposal submitted by the President to amend the relevant laws and remove the legal requirement for applying indelible ink on voters’ fingers while retaining the mandatory verification of voters using the NIC or other valid identification documents. She said the government had already commenced drafting the necessary legislative amendments to remove the requirement from all relevant statutes. The Prime Minister explained that the use of indelible ink had originally been introduced to prevent multiple voting and electoral fraud before 2004. However, following the Court of Appeal ruling in Case No. CA/WRIT/356/2008 and the enactment of Section 4 of the Elections (Special Provisions) Act, No. 14 of 2004, the production of a National Identity Card or another valid identity document became compulsory for every voter before casting a ballot. “Since then, the application of indelible ink has continued merely as a tradition, despite the mandatory voter identification process already serving the purpose of preventing impersonation and multiple voting,” she said. The Prime Minister said eliminating the practice would significantly reduce election expenditure. According to figures presented to Parliament, the Government spent Rs. 66.08 million to import indelible ink for the 2019 Presidential Election, Rs. 14.93 million for the 2020 General Election, Rs. 33.11 million for the 2024 Presidential Election, Rs. 22.66 million for the 2024 General Election and Rs. 27.51 million for the 2025 Local Government Election. She pointed out that the exercise also required the deployment of thousands of additional public servants solely to apply the ink at polling centres. The 2024 Presidential Election was conducted at 13,421 polling centres, the 2024 General Election at 13,380 centres and the 2025 Local Government Election at 13,764 centres. Nearly 62,700 public servants were deployed for ink-marking duties during those three elections alone. The salaries paid to those officials amounted to approximately Rs. 203.8 million, while the total expenditure, including transport and other allowances, exceeded Rs. 400 million. “We have spent nearly Rs. 400 million on salaries, allowances and related expenses for a task that is no longer necessary,” the Prime Minister said. She added that maintaining both compulsory identity verification and physical ink marking had also slowed the voting process at polling stations. The Prime Minister said that with compulsory voter identification now firmly in place and the Election Commission having cleaned and updated the electoral register using modern technology, the possibility of duplicate voting had already been effectively addressed, making the continued use of indelible ink unnecessary. She said that while the Government intended to abolish ink marking, there would be no relaxation of voter identification requirements, with every voter continuing to be required to produce an NIC or another legally accepted identity document before being issued a ballot paper.