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Basil steps in: PC polls before March
The Government is to fast-track the process of holding elections for nine Provincial Councils (PCs) before March next year as opposition parties signalled collective support to the passage of a Bill to overcome legal impediments.
The Government’s position was conveyed by Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa on Friday when he took part in the Parliamentary Select Committee that was appointed to identify reforms of the election laws and the electoral system and to recommend amendments.
Mr Rajapaksa was appointed to the committee only two weeks ago and it was the first time he took part in the committee sessions.
The Finance Minister noted that Provincial Councils had been defunct for years without polls and were currently administered by governors after being brought under Presidential rule. He underlined the need to resolve legal impediments to conduct early polls by March.
The Government announcement came days after the visit of India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla who was here for a four-day official visit.
During a meeting with Tamil political parties, the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary told them that the delay in conducting the PC polls was taken up with senior government leaders and ‘pressure’ would be exerted on the government leadership in this regard.
Accordingly, the Government is scheduled to submit a fresh bill to Parliament in January after Cabinet approval is granted to resolve the legal deadlock by repealing the Provincial Council Elections Act No. 17 of 2017 and revert to the previous Proportional Representation (PR) system.
The Attorney General’s Department representatives attending Friday’s meeting pointed out that a new Act would be required even to revert to the previous system.
The PC election was to be held under the new mixed electoral system. The last local council election was held under the mixed system, with 60 percent of the seats in each local government authority being filled under the first-past-the-post system, while the remaining 40 percent was filled based on the proportion of votes received by each contesting political party or independent group.
In 2017, the Yahapalana government enacted a law introducing a mixed electoral system of the First Past the Post (FPP) and PR for provincial councils (60:40), but the process was put on hold after Parliament failed to approve a report submitted by the National Delimitation Commission demarcating new electoral boundaries. Thereafter, the polls for PCs were put on the back burner for years, citing legal deadlocks.
In 2019, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) spokesperson M.A. Sumanthiran, who also serves in the Parliamentary Select Committee, submitted a one-line private member bill that would have enabled the Government to circumvent the current amendment and revert to the old system for early polls without further delay. However, that bill was not tabled in Parliament.
“Opposition parties have made it clear that they are for early PC polls and will support the Government to pass the bill even if it requires a two-thirds majority which the ruling party already commands,” Mr. Sumanthiran said.
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka and Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Leader Mano Ganesan said they would support the new Bill to hold early polls even without a debate.
“From the beginning, the SJB was supporting the idea of conducting the polls under the PR system and all political parties agreed to it. Even the AG’s Department representatives indicated that holding polls under the previous system is the way out,” Mr. Madduma Bandara said.