• Basil pushes for PC polls as early as possible 

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana

The committee on Election Law Reforms and Electoral System Reforms has decided to present amendments to the Provincial Council Elections Act to Parliament in January, next year to hold provincial council elections as early as possible, Parliament media unit which quoted the committee Chairman Dinesh Gunawardena said yesterday. 
This decision was made when Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa stressed the need for holding provincial council elections without further delay.  “Provincial Council Elections have been delayed for almost three years. The running of provincial councils by a single individual is not healthy at all. Therefore it is essential to hold the provincial council elections as soon as possible,” the Minister has said.

“A majority who voiced their opinion before the committee wants the elections held under a mixed system.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the expert committee which is responsible for reviewing the proposals that are made to the select committee and Vice-Chancellor University of Sri Jayawardenepura Professor Sudantha Liyanage has been of the opinion that the number of members in local bodies have to be reduced. He said the majority view is to reduce the number of members who are elected from the lists instead of reducing the number of members elected from wards. Also, he said the expert committee is of the opinion that the number of members elected through wards and lists both should be reduced. Professor Liyanage has proposed that the electoral system for Parliament and provincial councils should be similar. Further he has suggested that the current composition of Parliament should be maintained. At the same time, he had said a new system pertaining to appointing MPs through the national list should be amended.

Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva, Pavithradevi Wanniarachchi, MPs Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Anura Dissanayake, Mano Ganesan, M. A. Sumanthiran, Madura Withanage and Sagara Kariyawasam participated in the meeting.

• The running of provincial councils by a single individual is not healthy at all