By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham

Colombo, August 10 –  While civil society leaders such as Karu Jayasuriya, president of the National Movement for Social Justice( NMSJ) and former speaker of parliament, and Dr. Jagan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council (NPC) have been at the forefront urging the Sri Lankan government to hold provincial council elections as soon as possible, most politicians in southern Sri Lanka do not care about those elections or the future of the  provincial councils.

The voices of politicians who constantly demand the abolition of provincial councils are also heard loudly from time to time.

But , in a strange turn of events, a group of southern politicians demanded last week that the government immediately hold provincial council elections. They accused Provincial Governors  of arbitrarily spending funds allocated to the councils and the government of delaying provincial council elections.

Addressing a media  conference in Colombo, Kurunegala District Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara said, “Governors are now taking decisions unilaterally and spending the funds of the Provincial Councils as they please. For example, the Governor of the North Western Province has spent Rs.3 billion without proper monitoring.”

He raised the issue of the neglect of schools under the jurisdiction of provincial councils  and said that the government plans to close down schools with less than fifty students.

Pointing out that decisions like closure of schools cannot be taken unilaterally as education is a devolved subject  under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, he said that if elections are held immediately and provincial councils are made functional, they will provide a platform to effectively resolve regional issues.

Jayasekara’s position is that provincial council elections can be held under the proportional representation system by passing a simple amendment in parliament, or that elections can be held under the new mixed system by having parliament approve a delimitation report.

While a former Member of Parliament Premnath Tholawatta said that the government might ignore the urgency  for provincial council elections by attempting to introduce a new constitution, former Minister  Buddhika Pathirana urged the government to respect  the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s frequent request to hold provincial council elections in accordance with constitutional commitments.

It is important at this stage to welcome the comments of these southern  politicians rather than  imply that there are various political reasons for their sudden interest in provincial council elections and the need for functioning provincial councils to address  regional problems.

Although provincial council elections have not been held for eight years, most politicians in Southern and Northern and Eastern provinces are not concerned about the future of the  councils for different reasons.  

It is not clear whether Jayasekara and the others who urged the government to hold early provincial council elections, reflect the official position of their respective political parties. But their concern in highlighting  problems caused by the continued administration of the provinces by governors directly appointed by the president should be welcomed and understood properly.

Leaving the governors in charge of the provinces for years without handing over their administration to elected  representatives is in fact a mockery of the concept of devolution. There are politicians who say that nothing has been gone wrong in the country because the provincial councils have not been functioning for many years. They hold that provincial councils were thrusted upon Sri Lanka by India.

Sri Lanka has seen four presidents and three governments since provincial council elections were postponed in 2017. Governments and opposition parties must collectively accept responsibility for the indefinite postponement of the elections.

Provincial elections could not be held because of the deplorable manner in which the provincial council elections amendment bill which was to guarantee a 30  percent quota for women, was stalled at the committee stage of the parliamentary debate. Some MPs sought change of the  electoral system to the mixed one as in the local government elections. This was widely condemned at that time.

What was passed by Parliament was vastly different from the bill examined by the Supreme Court. This happened during the Sirisena — Ranil government. As a result of the rejection by Parliament of the delimitation report, elections had to be postponed indefinitely.

Elections can be held only if Parliament approves a new delimitation report. Doing so would be an act of delaying the elections again. It would, therefore, be practical for the time being to hold Provincial Council elections under the proportional representation system fully as in the past.

Provincial Council elections could have been held earlier if the amendment bill moved by M.A.Sumanthiran as a private member motion had been passed by Parliament during the regime of President Ranil Wickremasinghe.

In a situation where it was largely  expected that  Sumanthiran’s bill would surely be passed by Parliament, the government scuttled it. It seemed that the main reason for this was the decision taken by the Illankai Thamizharasu Katchi (ITAK)  to support the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB ) candidate Sajith Premadasa in the 2024  presidential election. The ITAK also apparently did not have the political acumen to realize that it would be prudent to take a decision on whom to support in the presidential election after the bill was passed by the parliament.

Recently, Batticaloa district MP Chanakyan Rajamanickam submitted a bill as a private member motion as Sumanthiran previously did. Passing it in Parliament could pave the way for the early conduct of provincial council elections under the system of proportional representation. It is noteworthy that the government side once assured the House that the government will bring such a bill and pass it to pave the way for provincial elections.

If the government has genuine political will to hold provincial council elections at the earliest, it can either support Chanakyan’s bill or the government itself can bring an amendment bill. While Minister Bimal Ratnayake recently announced that provincial council elections would be held early next year, the Elections Commission has declared that it is entirely the responsibility of Parliament to find a solution to the legal snags in holding those elections.

There is also a widespread view that the government is not ready to rush into holding provincial council elections. In any case, it is entirely the responsibility of the National People’s Power Government to take necessary steps to hold Provincial Council elections expeditiously. It has no excuse whatsoever to absolve its responsibility.

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(The author is a senior Colombo-based journalist)

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