EC says Govt. must decide on provincial council elections before Sept.

• -Chairman says Government has four options, one of which must be implemented before September for timely elections

 By Skandha Gunasekara

Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya yesterday gave four options the Government could select for provincial council elections but insisted that a decision must be made before September. 

Addressing a media briefing at the Department of Elections, Deshapriya said that Parliament was yet to debate and pass the delimitation report which has been submitted to Parliament. 

“The first option for the Government is to approve the current delimitation report. Once that is done a date can be set for the Provincial Councils,” he said. 

He went on to say that the second option for the Government would be revise the delimitation report through a committee appointed by the Prime Minister.

Alternatively, if there was a need to change the 50:50 Preferential and First-past-the-post systems, an additional delimitation report would needed to be done, after which two-thirds parliamentary majority approval would be needed.

The fourth and final option would be to completely switch to the preferential system, which again must be done through Parliament by bringing in new legislation to scrap the existing electoral system.

“The Central, North Central and North Western provincial terms are coming to an end in September. If we are to have elections for these provincial councils on time the Government must decide on one of these options and take action before then,” Deshapriya said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, as well as other politicians, had earlier called for issues in the system used at the recently concluded Local Government elections to be rectified before proceeding with the next round of national elections. They have pointed out that problems, including accommodating high numbers of councillors and implementing the 25% quota for women, would have to be re-evaluated before provincial council elections can be held. 

The Opposition has contended that these are delay tactics by the Government, which fears another election could add momentum to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Party (SLPP) backed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that won during the Local Government polls in February.