Party leaders ready to go for PC polls - Minister

By Kelum Bandara  

The leaders of political parties aligned with the government decided to create the necessary legal infrastructure for the immediate conduct of the elections to the provincial councils, a Minister said yesterday.  Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage who attended the meeting chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told Daily Mirror the necessary legal amendments would be done to call for elections as early as possible.  

“We are ready for the elections,” he said.  

The elections to some provincial councils have been held up since 2017 due to a legal snag created after the attempt by the previous government to change the present electoral system.   The previous government introduced it in the form of an amendment to the Provincial Council Elections Act. It secured two-thirds for it at that time with the support of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).  

The resolution to be moved on Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) also calls for the conduct of elections to the provincial councils to strengthen local governance. In recent times, India has repeated its call for the implementation of the 13th Amendment which provides for the constitution of provincial councils.    However, the nationalist forces that back the government are opposed to the  system. They have already urged the government to scrap the system.