Militaristic enforcement and its effects on disability

The COVID-19 outbreak hit Sri Lanka six months prior to the official end of the Government’s elected term. National Parliament had been dissolved on 3 March 2020 and elections called for 25 April 2020. Sri Lanka’s response to COVID-19 is thus entangled with an imminent constitutional crisis as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has responded to the public health emergency without Parliamentary oversight. The President imposed an island-wide curfew on 20 March under the Quarantine Ordinance, and those caught violating the curfew were arrested. The curfew was extended on the pretext of containing the spread of the virus, and the planned national parliamentary election of 25 April 2020 was not held within the constitutionally stipulated period of three months of the dissolution of Parliament. The President has stated that the public health crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is unforeseen within the constitution, and that there is no other option but to hold the election as soon as possible. A new date of 20 June 2020 has now been set, which meets the constitutional requirements, but the management of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka has been a ‘doubling of the chaos’ through mixing the public health crisis with a constitutional crisis. One effect has been to undermine the political rights of marginalized communities, specifically, persons with disabilities and those living with chronic health conditions and illness