By Skandha Gunasekara

Co-Cabinet Spokesman and Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senaratne said that Provincial Council elections would be further delayed till March, 2019.

Addressing the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister Senaratne said that the expert committee, headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, appointed to review the Delimitation Committee report, had requested for an additional two months.

“The five-member expert committee was given a time frame of two months to submit their review on the delimitation report. However, they have requested an additional two months to complete their review. Therefore, it is most likely that the Provincial Council election would be delayed at least till March next year.”

The delimitation report was defeated in Parliament on 24 August by a 2/3 majority. Thereafter, on 28 August, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya appointed a five-member committee headed by Prime Minister Wickremesinghe with the mandate of reviewing the defeated delimitation report and submitting its views within a period of two months.  

Furthermore, the Minister rejected claims that the Government was attempting to have staggered elections.

“We have no intention of staggering elections. Did we not have the all local government elections at once? We hope to at least have elections for all Provincial Councils that have expired their operational term,” the Minister said.