Govt. backtracking on pledges to hold early PC polls 

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)  General Secretary Tilvin Silva caused a stir recently by stating that it will not be  possible to hold the Provincial Council elections this year. According to Silva, Rs. 500 billion allocated in the recent Budget for the Provincial Council elections had to be diverted for disaster relief in the wake of Cyclone Ditwah.

He made these remarks while responding to questions raised by journalists after the opening of the National People’s Power (NPP) new coordination office in the Jaffna District a few days ago.

This claim that the PC polls cannot be held due to shortage of funds is dubious. The reality is that the Government had no intention of holding the PC polls this year, Ditwah or no Ditwah.

Provincial Councils elections haven’t been held in the country since 2014 with the terms of the different councils lapsing between 2012-2014 as they were held on a staggered basis.

The easiest way to hold the election is to conduct it under the original PC polls act – the Provincial Councils Elections Act of 1988- if the Government is serious about it but instead the Government  has appointed a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to look into and report on selecting an electoral system for the PCs. The PSC is chaired by Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath which first met in March and has made little progress  since then.

If the Government was serious about the PSC getting any work done, it would have named a MP  with more time  his/her hand to head the committee. With three portfolios to his name, Herath in addition to being  in charge of Foreign Affairs is also the Minister of Foreign Employment and Tourism, barely has  time for of all his ministries with the MFA  taking up all the time. With his regular foreign travels, he is left for New Zealand and Australia for a week-long visit on Monday days after returning from Belarus, it’s unlikely he will have time to attend to  the PSC on PC polls.

The mess with regards to holding the PC election came about with the repealing of the old law and replacing it with the PC Act of 2017, which requires a delimitation of new electoral wards to hold the poll. One delimitation report was completed but there was some controversy on how the delimitation was done with allegations that in some areas electoral areas were drawn up to favour certain ethnic /religious groups .

Under the 1988 PC Act, members are elected under the Proportional Representation (PR) system, while the amended Provincial Councils Elections Act in 2017 introduced a Multi-Member Proportional system which provides for a mix between the PR and the Westminster (first-past-the-post) systems.

Sri Lanka is a country where elections have been held under far worse economic conditions and political instability. The first PC polls were held in 1988 when the Government of the day was battling a full blown insurgency  by the JVP, a party that was vehemently opposed to the PC system at the time. Not many have forgotten the  JVP threats to kill the first ten to cast their votes at that election. In some cases they weren’t only threats, they were carried out and lives were lost as voters/officials/candidates braved death threats to ensure the elections were  held.

There is no such situation in the country and the JVP in its new avatar as the NPP has embraced the PC system wholeheartedly. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in his election manifesto pledged to hold the elections within a  year of being elected, and later said the polls would be held in 2026 but that too seems unlikely now.

When the JVP General Secretary was asked by journalists if there is any pressure from India to hold the PC elections soon, he said there is no pressure from India whatsoever.

Elections in a democracy should not be held due to pressure from any other country. They must be held so voters get the chance to exercise their franchise and elect their representatives to the PCs.