While civil society leaders such as National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) Chairman and former Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya and National Peace Council (NPC) Executive Director Dr. Jehan Perera have been at the forefront of urging the Government to hold Provincial Council (PC) Elections as soon as possible, most politicians in southern Sri Lanka do not care about these elections or the future of the PCs.
The voices of politicians who constantly demand the abolition of PCs are also heard loudly from time to time.
However, in a strange turn of events, a group of southern politicians suddenly demanded recently that the Government immediately hold PC Elections. They accused provincial governors of arbitrarily spending funds allocated to councils and the Government of delaying the elections.
Addressing a media conference in Colombo, Kurunegala District Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara said: “Governors are now making decisions unilaterally and spending the funds of PCs as they please.” He went on to allege that the Governor of the North Western Province had spent Rs. 3 billion without proper monitoring.
He raised the issue of the neglect of schools under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Councils and said that the Government planned to close down schools with less than 50 students.
Pointing out that decisions like the closure of schools could not be made unilaterally as education was a devolved subject under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, he said that if elections were to be held immediately and PCs were to be made functional, they would provide a platform to effectively resolve regional issues.
Jayasekara’s position is that PC Elections can be held under the Proportional Representation (PR) 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 former Member of Parliament (MP) Premnath Dolawatte said that the Government may ignore the urgent need for PC Elections by attempting to introduce a new constitution, former Deputy Minister Buddhika Pathirana urged the Government to respect Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s frequent requests to hold PC Elections in accordance with constitutional commitments.
A welcome concern
At this stage, it is important to welcome the comments of these southern politicians rather than to imply that there are various political reasons for their sudden interest in PC Elections and the need for functioning Provincial Councils to address regional problems.
Although PC Elections have not been held for eight years, most politicians in the south as well as those in the Northern and Eastern Provinces are not concerned about the future of the PCs for different reasons. Therefore, it is imperative to bring about a change in such an irresponsible attitude to provincial governance.
It is not clear whether Jayasekara and the others who urged the Government to hold early PC Elections reflect the official positions of their respective political parties on the issue. But their concern in highlighting problems caused by the continued administration of the provinces under 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 gone wrong in the country even though the PCs have not been functioning for many years. They are, in fact, against devolutionary arrangements and hold that PCs were thrust upon Sri Lanka forcibly by India.
The amendment bill
Sri Lanka has seen four Presidents and three Governments since PC 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 made out to be a move to guarantee a 30% quota for women, was altered at the committee stage of the parliamentary debate with sections changing the electoral system into a mixed one as in the Local Government Elections.
It was widely condemned at that time given that what was passed by Parliament was vastly different from the bill examined by the Supreme Court. This took place during the Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe Government. As a result of Parliament’s rejection 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 practicable for the time being to hold the Provincial Council Elections entirely under the PR system as in the past.
The PC Elections could have been held earlier if the amendment bill moved by former MP M.A. Sumanthiran as a private member’s motion had been passed by Parliament during the regime of President Wickremesinghe.
In a situation where it was widely expected that Sumanthiran’s bill would surely be passed in Parliament, the Government scuttled the possibility. It seemed that the main reason for this was the decision taken by the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) to support Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) candidate Sajith Premadasa at the 2024 Presidential Election.
The ITAK also apparently did not have the political acumen to realise that it would be prudent to take a decision on whom to support in the Presidential Election after the bill had been passed by Parliament.
Recently, Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam has submitted a bill as a private member’s motion as Sumanthiran previously did. Passing it in Parliament could pave the way for PC Elections under the PR system. It is noteworthy that the Government side once assured the House that it would bring such a bill and pass it to pave the way for provincial elections.
No excuse
If the Government has genuine political will to hold the PC Elections at the earliest, it can either support Rasamanickam’s bill in Parliament or the Government itself can bring and pass an amendment bill.
While Minister Bimal Rathnayake recently announced that PC Elections would be held early next year, the Election Commission has declared that it is entirely the responsibility of Parliament to find a solution to the legal snags preventing the holding of these elections.
There is also a widespread view that the Government is not ready to rush into holding PC Elections. In any case, it is entirely the responsibility of the National People’s Power Government to take the necessary steps to hold the elections expeditiously and to allow provincial governance to be handled by elected representatives. It has no excuse whatsoever to absolve itself of responsibility.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Colombo)
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this publication)