Historically, no domestic attempt to find a political solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem has been successful. The southern Sri Lankan polity does not want to share power with minority communities.

It was due to the intervention of India that the system of Provincial Councils (PC) was introduced. Successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to make the PCs function properly in the last 38 years. 

The PCs have been under governors without elections for the past seven years, making the concept of power sharing meaningless.

Even though India has not been able to bring Sri Lankan governments on board, the system of PCs and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that introduced it continue to exist.

The PC system has survived only because it was brought into being in the wake of Indian intervention. But it seems that the only power-sharing arrangement in the Sri Lankan Constitution is now in danger.

JVP’s contradictory stances

Even as demands for early elections to the long-delayed PCs are growing louder in the north and south, we are unable to count on the possibility of elections being held at least next year, given the reasons being put forward by the Government. 

Against this backdrop, comments made by Tilvin Silva, General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the flagship party of the ruling National People’s Power (NPP), in an interview to a private television network last week warrant serious attention.

Stating that the PCs would be abolished when a new constitution was brought in, Silva categorically stated that the elections could be held only after the completion of the new delimitation process. He also said that the PC system would remain in place until a new constitution was brought in, adding that a system that would create true national unity would be introduced thereafter. 

Silva’s position is that the PC system has not been successful in establishing national unity in Sri Lanka.

JVP leaders, including President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, have consistently said that the PCs will remain in place until a new system that can bring about harmony among the Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim communities is identified. But they have not said what the new system would look like. Even the election manifesto of the NPP did not give a definite answer in this regard.

However, we all know that the JVP has a bitter history of fiercely opposing every attempt to find a political solution to the national ethnic problem and that it is against the PCs on the basis of its anti-power-sharing policy. At the same time, though, the party has been contesting elections for the PCs.

One wonders how many of the NPP’s leaders remember their promise that PC Elections would be held within a year of taking office. But looking at the reasons that the Government is now putting forward for delaying those elections as much as possible, it seems that it is following the same approach that former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Government used to postpone the Local Government (LG) Elections.

The Government has yet to recommence the delimitation process, which has been in limbo for more than seven years. The Election Commission has already said that it will take at least a year to complete the process, even if it starts now.

The postponement of the PC Elections is really a political issue, and therefore, the most effective way to sort it out is to crank up pressure on the Government. But it is futile to expect the Opposition political parties, which are demanding that the Government hold PC Elections at the earliest, will jointly wage any effective protest movement.

Govt. commitment questioned

A few days ago, former Chairman of the Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya shed light on a legal dimension to the problem. He said the governors were keeping the PCs under their control in violation of a Supreme Court ruling that PCs be governed by elected councillors. 

Based on the views expressed by Deshapriya, who is a person with a thorough knowledge of election laws and the judicial rulings pertaining to them, those who are genuinely desirous of having the PC Polls held without delay can now explore the possibility of seeking judicial intervention.

During his regime, former President Wickremesinghe was heavily criticised by the NPP when he postponed the LG Elections in defiance of a Supreme Court order. The NPP joined other Opposition parties in demanding that the Government respect the court’s order to allocate funds for local elections. According to Deshapriya’s argument, the incumbent Government and its leaders are acting in the manner of Wickremesinghe when it comes to PC Elections.

In order to avoid further delay due to the delimitation impasse, the Government could easily facilitate the conduct of elections under the system of proportional representation. A simple majority in Parliament is enough, according to Deshapriya. The NPP has more than a two-thirds majority in Parliament to amend a previously passed law or bring in a new law to pave the way for the elections. In fact, removing the deadlock is an easy task for the Government.

Govt. assurances

President Dissanayake, who presented the 2026 Budget in Parliament on 7 November, said that the Government was prepared to hold PC Elections and had allocated Rs. 10 billion for the purpose, adding that it was not up to him to determine the date of the elections. 

“The elections to the PCs have been delayed due to the delimitation of electorates. Former Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Faiszer Musthapha submitted the bill for delimitation to Parliament during the ‘Yahapalana’ Government. But the stalemate continues. We are not responsible for that,” the President told the House. 

Meanwhile, Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Chandana Abayarathna said recently that the Government would hold an all-party conference and invite civil society as well in order to explore ways to hold the elections.

In an interview with Meera Srinivasan, the Colombo correspondent for India’s The Hindu, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, after her visit to India, said that elections to the PCs had to be held and that it had to be examined whether a new law was needed or whether Parliament would agree to hold elections under the old system. 

In Parliament, Leader of the House, Minister Bimal Rathnayake, while participating in the Budget debate, announced that a special parliamentary select committee would be appointed to review the legal framework for holding PC Elections and that the Government would take necessary steps to expedite the election process.

Unanswered questions

Let us hope that the PC Elections will not meet the same fate as the LG Elections during Wickremesinghe’s tenure.

Be that as it may, JVP General Secretary Silva’s claim that the new constitution will not include PCs raises questions about the future of power sharing in the country. 

If the system of having provinces as units of devolution is done away with, what will be the territorial boundaries of the new system? Will there be an arrangement for any devolution of power in the new constitution? Will it at least have the existing powers of PCs? 

Or will the new constitutional drafting process end up satisfying southern nationalist forces opposed to devolution of power and the legitimate political aspirations of minority communities, leaving the minority communities in the lurch again?

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Colombo)

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this publication)