• Govt. must clear legal situation

The Election Commission (EC) stated that there is no need to make any specific request to the Government to facilitate the long-delayed Provincial Council (PC) Elections, as it has already communicated what needs to be done.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, EC Chairperson, R.M.A.L. Rathnayake said: “We’ve already made our requests. There’s nothing more to ask now. We’ve clearly stated how this should be done. There are only two options: either the delimitation process should be finalised, or the relevant law should be amended. There’s nothing more that the EC can do beyond that.”

He also said that the EC is currently working on updating the voter register, and is ready to hold the PC Elections at any time, provided the legal roadblocks are cleared.

Although there should be public representatives for the better functioning of PCs, the PC Elections to elect public representatives have been postponed for a long time due to a legal issue which arose as a result of a legal amendment that the United National Front led Government from 2015 to 2020 attempted to bring in.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of PCs Ruwan Senarath told The Daily Morning on an earlier occasion that the Government planned to begin the legal reform process for the PC Elections once the Local Government (LG) Elections were concluded. The LG Elections were held on 6 May.