Sri Lanka election monitor Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) calls on the government to hold the Provincial Council Elections in April this year.
Executive Director of CaFFE Keerthi Tennakoon said the Delimitation Committee on Provincial Councils appointed to determine the limits of electoral districts has finished their report and handed over to the subject Minister.
The Executive Director stressed that the government should call an all-party meeting immediately and hold the elections as promised in the North-Central, Eastern and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Councils in April, 2018.
He said that CaFFE will take the lead in defeating any attempt to postpone PC polls and would not allow any individual to postpone the Provincial Council Election under any circumstance.
Under the amended Act No.17 of 2017 a change in the electoral system was made to hold elections under a mixed voting system.
Under the mixed voting system 50 percent of the representatives should be elected by the simple majority system for an electoral district and another 50% should be selected according to the district level proportional representation method (the additional list).
The five-member committee after completing the work in four months handed over its report to the Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Faizer Mustapha yesterday, Tennakoon noted.
He said the amendment was passed in the parliament illegally using female representation as an excuse to postpone the elections.
Campaign for Free and Fair Elections has alleged that the government is attempting to “hide the election map in the face of intense criticism and opposition to the UNP-SLFP.”
At the parliamentary debate, the government emphasized that the provincial council election would be held in April 2018.
The CaFFE director said the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government was engaged in a shameful and unpopular attempt to postpone provincial elections for more than two years and this led to the overall inaction of the provincial government.
Minister Faizer Mustapha acted ignoring the opposition of the people and the government and the people are now enduing the adverse results, Tennakoon said.
If the government attempts to postpone the provincial council elections same way they postponed the local government elections, the CaFFE will use its maximum energy to prevent it, he said.
