In less than a fortnight, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will rise in Parliament to present the 2027 Budget. Much of the attention will, quite rightly, be on taxes, salaries, and the fiscal targets agreed with the International Monetary Fund. However, there is one matter the public should watch with equal care: whether the Government intends to fund, and finally fix a date for, the Provincial Council (PC) Elections that are now years overdue.
Provincial administrations run schools, hospitals, and a host of everyday services, yet they answer to no elected member. Earlier this year, the Committee on Public Accounts had to summon the Central Provincial Council over its audit reports, precisely because there is no council of elected representatives to hold it to account. In other words, this particular tier of government has had no mandate from the voter for the better part of a decade.
To be fair, the rot did not begin with this Government. In September 2017, the then administration pushed through the Provincial Councils Elections (Amendment) Act No.17, replacing proportional representation with a mixed system that could not operate until electorates were redrawn. When the delimitation report came before the House in August 2018, it was defeated by 139 votes to nil, with the very Minister who tabled it voting against it. Consequently, the councils lapsed one after another between 2017 and 2019 and passed into the hands of Governors appointed by the President. Successive governments then found it convenient to let matters drift, since provincial polls amount to a mid-term verdict that few in power welcome.
The National People’s Power (NPP), however, knew this history well when it sought office. Its 2024 manifesto pledged to hold the elections within a year of taking power. In August last year, the Leader of the House said they would be held in the first half of 2026, and before any constitutional reform. Instead, January brought a resolution for yet another Parliamentary Select Committee, which first met in March and was asked to report within three months. By May, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) General Secretary was saying polls were not possible this year, and by August the Cabinet Spokesman would only say “as soon as possible”. Meanwhile, the committee’s term has been extended to 17 December. Not surprisingly, the Opposition walked out in September, accusing it of being a device for delay.
The Government’s defence is that it wants a better electoral system, with fair representation for women and youth. That is a worthy aim, and nobody should argue against it. Even so, it cannot justify keeping an entire tier of government in cold storage. The Election Commission has told the committee it is ready to hold the polls at any time. Private members’ bills to restore the old proportional system have been on the table since 2019. Reform can follow, debated at leisure, with elected councils already in place.
What makes the delay harder to defend is the speed this Government shows when it truly wants something done. The 22nd Amendment, raising the retirement age of judges, was presented on 18 August and passed with 158 votes on 25 September, in spite of fierce objections from the Bar. A Government that can carry a constitutional amendment through the House in under six weeks can hardly claim that an election law is beyond it. The obstacle, therefore, is not parliamentary arithmetic but political will.
There is also a wider cost. Provincial Councils remain the only working form of devolution under the 13th Amendment, and Tamil and Muslim parties have pressed the President to hold the polls. Leaving the councils unelected sends an unhelpful signal on reconciliation at a time when the Government speaks of a new Constitution. Moreover, a movement that rode to power denouncing an unaccountable political class ought to be uneasy about governors and officials running nine provinces with no elected oversight.
The Budget and the committee’s December deadline, then, offer the Government a clear opportunity to settle the matter once and for all. It should set aside the funds explicitly, announce a timeline, and if its preferred system needs fresh delimitation, hold this round under the old law while that work continues. Citizens in nine provinces have waited long enough. The NPP promised to bring the people into governance, and it is high time that promise leaves the committee room and reaches the ballot box.