Leaders of the political parties aligned with the government have decided to prepare the necessary legal infrastructure to conduct the provincial council elections soon, a Minister said today.
Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage who attended the meeting chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told the Daily Mirror that 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 an amendment to the PC 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 conducting of elections to the provincial councils to strengthen the local governance. In the 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. (Daily Mirror)