The Government has ruled out holding Provincial Council (PC) Elections in 2025, citing unresolved legal and technical issues – chief among them the contentious matter of delimitation.
Deputy Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Prabha Ruwan Senarath confirmed that elections would not be scheduled until these challenges were adequately addressed and the legal framework governing provincial governance was stabilised.
“They brought a delimitation report, tabled it, and then they themselves voted against it. They made it a complete joke,” Senarath said, referencing the turmoil caused when former Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Faiszer Musthapha tabled a delimitation report to hold the Provincial Council Elections and ended up voting against the very report he had tabled.
“That signifies significant flaws in the delimitation system,” he said.
In light of this failure, the Government is now considering a reversion to the earlier electoral system and delimitation for provincial councils. However, Senarath emphasised that this would only happen once the Local Government structure was strengthened and empowered to manage grassroots public services more effectively.
“People generally tend to connect more with the localised representatives, like the grama niladhari, the divisional secretaries, and local authority representatives. We want to empower the local authorities further so that people have better access and more power,” he explained.
“Only after setting up this mechanism properly will we turn our attention to the provincial councils,” he added.
Senarath also outlined a broader strategy of prioritising infrastructure and development over immediate elections, particularly in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. These initiatives are part of a collaborative effort with India to launch targeted development projects starting in August this year.
“We are planning to do most of our developmental work in the north and east. We have asked the relevant authorities not to pass any more funds until the project starts in August. The next six months are going to be dedicated to developmental work, so we cannot move for an election at this juncture,” he said.
The Government expects to revisit the question of Provincial Council Elections in January 2026. By then, Senarath hopes the legal, administrative, and delimitation-related shortcomings will be resolved, clearing the way for elections the following year.
“We will need to ensure all these problems in the law are fixed before we can go for Provincial Council Elections next year. Preliminary discussions have started, but there are many other matters to resolve before we hold the elections,” he said.