By Vishvanath
A legal snag has stood in the way of the declaration of the local government (LG) elections, according to media reports, quoting the Election Commission (EC). Chairman of the EC Ananda Rathnayake is reported to have said his institution brought the matter to the attention of the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government, etc., requesting that the LG Authorities Elections Act be amended for the LG elections to be held early next year. The Ministry has agreed to take action to introduce the required amendment before the end of January 2025, according to Rathnayake.
The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the EC to hold the LG polls as soon as possible. On August 22, 2024, the SC made that order after hearing several fundamental rights petitions against the postponement of the LG polls in 2023. The then President Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed the government had to prioritize the task of meeting the basic needs of the people over conducting elections and therefore funds could not be allocated for the LG polls. The EC had initiated the process of conducting the LG polls, but the government derailed it by refusing to allocate funds. The SC held that the fundamental rights of the petitioners had been violated. Several groups including the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, the Centre for Policy Alternatives, and the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections, had filed the petitions.
The Cabinet has cancelled the nominations submitted for the LG polls, which were to be held last year, and now the EC will have to wait until the LG Authorities Elections Act is amended to call for fresh nominations. Unless the government acts fast enough to have the legal impediment to the conduct of the LG polls cleared, the Opposition is likely to move the SC against it.
Two electoral contests have been slated for next year. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has said the much-delayed Provincial Council (PC) elections will be held after the LG polls. The government is not under much pressure locally to hold the PC polls, which were put off indefinitely in 2017 under the UNP-led Yahapalana government. However, India is keen to have them held soon.
According to the English translation of a media statement by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a joint press conference with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in New Delhi on Dec. 16, India expects Sri Lanka to conduct the PC polls. PM Modi said, “We hope that the Sri Lankan government shall fulfil its commitment toward fully implementing the Constitution of Sri Lanka and conducting the Provincial Council elections.”
Amending the LG election laws will not be a difficult task for the NPP, which has a two-thirds majority in Parliament. It is believed that the amendment at issue will not require passage by a special majority. In any event, the Opposition is not likely to oppose a bill to be presented to that effect, for the SJB tried its best to have the LG polls held last year. So, the bill in question is sure to be passed, but how soon is the question.
It was a mistake for then President Ranil Wickremesinghe to postpone the LG polls last year. His contention was that besides the government’s pecuniary difficulties, local elections had the potential to disrupt the semblance of political and economic stability the country had regained painstakingly after the 2022 mass uprising, which led to the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and therefore the time was not opportune for an electoral exercise. But the actual reason for the LG polls postponement was that Wickremesinghe did not want any election to be held before the presidential polls he was planning to contest so that the electoral weaknesses of the UNP would not be exposed prematurely. The SLPP also did not want to face an election at that juncture.
NPP stalwart and Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala said in an interview with the state-owned ITN television recently that Wickremesinghe, who tried to prevent the JVP-led NPP from winning a couple of local councils by postponing the LG polls had enabled it to secure both the executive presidency and the control of the parliament, albeit unwittingly! If the SLPP-UNP administration had held the LG polls last year, it would have suffered an electoral setback, but arguably it would have had time to mend its ways and do everything in its power to recover lost ground in time for the presidential election.
The LG polls were first postponed in early 2022 during Gotabaya’s presidency. The then Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Janaka Bandara Tennakoon issued a gazette on Jan. 10, 2022 extending the terms of all LG councils by one year amidst howls of protests from the Opposition. Obviously, the SLPP government was afraid of facing any electoral contest owing to a sharp decline in its approval ratings in view of an economic downturn, which eventually led to widespread political upheavals. The then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was for holding the LG polls and in fact he tried to persuade the SLPP to go ahead with them, but in vain. If the SLPP government had done as he said, perhaps, it would have been able to defuse the massive pressure build-up in the polity to some extent although it was likely to suffer an electoral setback.
Elections to all nine PCs have been overdue by five to six years owing to an amendment introduced to the PC Elections Act in 2017. The original amendment bill contained provision for increasing female representation to 30%, which was the reason given for moving it, but a lot of committee stage amendments were incorporated into it without judicial sanction, paving the way for the postponement of the PC polls. All the political parties represented in the eighth parliament (2015-2018) supported the bill, which was passed with a two-thirds majority on Sept. 20, 2017.
The election to the nine PCs were held last as follows:
· Eastern North Central and Sabaragamuwa on Sept. 08, 2012
· Central, Northern and North Western on Sept. 21, 2013
· Western and Southern on March 29, 2014 and
· Uva on Sept. 21, 2014
Interestingly, the political parties that backed the controversial amendment bill, included the TNA, which has since been calling for the PC polls. India, which has been urging the Sri Lankan governments since 2017 to hold the PC polls, seems unaware of the circumstances under which the PC elections were postponed and those who were responsible for amending the PC Elections Act for that purpose.
Attempts to hold the PC polls are also likely to run into a snag. EC Chairman Rathnayake has been quoted by the media as saying that either the PC Elections Act has to be amended to revive the previous electoral system or the delimitation process has to be completed for the PC polls to be held. He has said that amending the PC Elections Act will help hold the elections expeditiously. This is something the government will have to give serious thought to in the coming weeks.
