The Local Government (LG) Elections, long delayed and much anticipated, took place in a peaceful manner without the abuses of government power witnessed till the recent past. Election monitoring organisations noted that these Elections were free of the abuses that took place on a large scale at previous elections held by previous governments. 

The ruling party polled more than double the amount received by the main Opposition, but, it could not replicate its strong showing at the past two Elections (Presidential and Parliamentary/General) in the North and the East. The outcome of the LG Elections will be especially important to the National People’s Power (NPP) Government as it is being accused by its critics of the non-delivery of elections-related promises. 

Examples cited are the failure to bring Opposition leaders accused of large-scale corruption and impunity to book, the failure to bring a halt to corruption in government departments where corruption is known to be deep rooted, the failure to find the culprits behind the Easter Sunday bombings and the failure to repeal draconian laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act as amended. In the former war zones of the North and the East, there is also a feeling that the Government is dragging its feet on resolving the problem of missing persons, those imprisoned without trial for long periods and the return of land taken over by the military. High-level visits by the President (Anura Kumara Dissanayake), the Prime Minister (Dr. Harini Amarasuriya), and Cabinet Ministers to these regions during a LG campaign were unprecedented but were not sufficient to secure the votes of the people. 

Recently, a new issue has entered the scene, with the Government stating that a total of nearly 6,000 acres of land in the Northern Province will be declared as State land if no claims regarding private ownership are received within three months. The declaration on land to be taken over in three months is seen as an unsympathetic action by the Government with an unrealistic time frame when the land in question has been held for over 30 years under military occupation and to which people had no access. Further, the unclaimed land to be designated as “State land”, raises questions about the motive of the circular. These issues possibly undermined the Government’s elections campaign in the North and the East. 

Economic incentives

At the General Elections held in December of last year (2024), the Tamil political parties had lost ground as they were themselves fractured, divided by personal rivalries and unable to form a united front. This lack of unity and positive agenda opened the door for the NPP to present itself as a credible alternative, particularly to younger and economically disenfranchised voters. Generational shifts may also have been at play. A younger electorate, less interested in the narratives of the past, was more open to evaluating candidates based on performance, transparency, and opportunity – criteria that favoured the NPP’s approach. As a result, the ruling party obtained an unprecedented majority of seats in all the Districts of the North and the East with the exception of Batticaloa. But, at the LG Elections, the NPP failed to hold its ground for a number of reasons.

This time  around, at the LG Elections, the Tamil political parties argued convincingly that the Government has failed to deliver on key issues, such as justice for missing persons, the return of military-occupied land, the release of long-term Tamil prisoners, and protection against Buddhist encroachment on historically Tamil and Muslim lands. They made the point that, while economic development is important, it cannot substitute for genuine political autonomy and self-determination. The failure of the Government to resolve a land issue in the North, where a Buddhist temple has been put up on private land has been highlighted as reflecting the Government’s deference to the majority ethnic sentiment.

In addition, during the past four months following the General Election, the performance of the Parliamentarians belonging to the ruling party and elected in the North and the East was unimpressive. They did not make their presence felt in the Parliament and, even speaking in their local areas, they failed to impress their audiences. Being inexperienced in politics, and not insiders within the ruling party, the ruling party MPs were unable to match their seasoned counterparts in the Opposition parties. They were not in a position to justify or explain the Government’s position that it will treat all citizens equally and focus on economic development which would reduce the need for ethnic-based power sharing.  

Broader vision

The Government’s Marxist-oriented political ideology would tend to see reconciliation in terms of structural equity and economic justice. It is not focused on addressing issues of ethno-religious identity which have been the long term demands of the Tamil and Muslim people living in the North and the East. If the Government had performed well in the North and the East at the LG Elections as it did at the General Election, it may have been able to strengthen its case that its approach to reconciliation grounded in equity rather than ethnicity had received a democratic endorsement. But, it did not get that second mandate. Its experiment with centralised decision making without making it a multi-ethnic and plural decision making process seems to have not been accepted by the Tamil and Muslim voters.

Presently, the Government is facing international pressure especially from India but also from Western countries to hold the long postponed Provincial Council (PC) Elections. The Government would need to speed up the PC Elections. The PCs were once seen as the pathway to greater autonomy. Their restoration through the conduct of PC Elections could help assuage Tamil concerns, especially if paired with initiating a broader dialogue on power-sharing mechanisms that do not rely solely on the 13th Amendment to the Constitution’s framework. 

The Government needs to take the outcome of the LG Elections in the North and the East as a wake-up call to work in partnership with the Tamil and Muslim parties and not see them as opponents or rivals only. Indeed, Government leaders have been saying that they are prepared to work with independent groups or individuals who won election at the LG Elections and are willing to work with them. The Government showed that it continues to have a strong base among the majority of the people. The Government has a two thirds majority in the Parliament to change the laws and Constitution to remake the country and deliver the system change that the people elected it to bring about. To the extent that it makes such changes after national discussions and getting the support of other political parties, the changes will be more sustainable. 

After the LG Elections, the Government needs to move from promises to results, and, it needs to do that soon as mandates need to be worked at to be long lasting.

(The writer is the Executive Director of the National Peace Council)

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication