Sri Lanka's provincial elections unlikely until Parliament adopts 2018 delimitation report: EC official

Colombo, Sep 14 (PTI) The long-delayed elections to Sri Lanka’s nine provincial councils are unlikely to be held soon as an Election Commission official on Sunday said they can only be held once Parliament adopts the 2018 delimitation report.

Just last week, renewed calls at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva for the early conduct of polls were made.

Election Commission Director General Saman Sri Ratnayake told reporters on Sunday that polls can only take place once Parliament adopts the 2018 delimitation report.  The Election Commission would move to hold the polls once the parliament made the necessary changes, he said, adding that budgetary allocations for the exercise have already been reserved.

A 2017 law introduced a mixed electoral system combining proportional representation and first-past-the-post voting, but the delimitation committee’s report was never tabled in Parliament. Until this is done, elections cannot be conducted.  Since 1988, provincial polls have been held under the proportional representation system, though political parties are now pressing for a return to the old method without waiting for delimitation.

At the UNHRC session, India reiterated its stand, calling for early conduct of provincial council elections.

“India has consistently called for the full and effective implementation of the Sri Lankan constitution, early conduct of provincial council elections and meaningful devolution of power,” Anupama Singh, the Indian official in Geneva, told the session.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath responded that “the elections for the provincial councils will be conducted by the independent elections commission once the delimitation process concludes”.

A draft UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka, to be adopted later this month, also urges the early holding of the polls as a signal of the government’s commitment to devolution of political power. PTI CORR SKS GSP