A few days ago, I read an online Sinhala news report on Provincial Council (PC) elections that’s delayed for over 08 years for now under 04 Presidents of different political perceptions; Sirisena, Gotabhaya, Wickramasinghe and now Anura Kumara Disanayaka (as officially spelt). The news report was about a seminar held for LG Members of Matale. The incumbent Director General (DG) of the Election Commission (EC), Saman Sri Rathnayake was reported as having told participants at this seminar, the EC is fully geared and has adequate allocations to hold PC elections any time the government creates legal provisions to hold PC elections. As the two EC chairmen the former and incumbent, had said before, DG Rathnayake too had said, with the parliament adopting the PC Elections (Amendment) Act No.17 of 2017, the PC Election Act No.02 of 1988 stays annulled since September 2017. He has thus said, for PC elections to be held the EC needs legal provisions and it is for the government to legislate such provisions. This is the stock, invalid, rogue explanation for indefinite postponing of PC elections as rattled out before him by the present and the past Chairmen of the EC.
When such rogue statements made by top Officialdom go without being challenged by professionals and their associations, for instance the BASL and especially by Tamil political leadership, Sinhala majority that rejected PCs in 1988 tend to think, PCs are no more relevant and are best left aside.
The concept of devolving power to provinces is not about giving the North-East citizens more power than what the Sinhala South enjoys. It is about democratising the “State” for effective “People’s participation”. It is about establishing a second tier in governance for People in the provinces to have a better say over their day to day life in their own provinces. Though in Sri Lanka, a democratic provincial culture has not been developed, it needs to be nurtured and the Sinhala South therefore needs to demand PC elections without any further delay.
Reason for Sirisena-Wickramasinghe government to suspend PC elections in 2017 September was, the euphoria with which their “Rainbow Revolution” government was embraced with, in January 2015 by the middleclass began fast evaporating with the Central Bank “bond scam” that exploded in end February 2025. It was alleged the country lost USD 11 million from the scam. That certainly was not the one and the last scam under the Sirisena-Wickramasinghe “Good Governance” rule. Never mind who’s at fault, it’s the Sirisena-Wickramasinghe government that had to face the flak and lost all credibility.
By 2017 their dilemma was not only their increasing unpopularity but MR regaining entry into popular politics once again. Thus when elections for 03 Provincial Councils were due in October, “Good Governance” leaders were not willing to get exposed as rejected by the people. The government therefore gazetted an Amendment to the PC Elections Act in August 2017 that allowed elections to all PCs to be held on the same day. For elections to be held on the same day, all PCs must first stand dissolved. Provision for such was entrenched in the Amendment that said, “….. specified date (to have all PCs dissolved) shall not be later than the expiration of the term of the last constituted Provincial Council” that was Uva PC, and was to be dissolved in September 2019. It therefore meant, no PC elections would be held before November 2019 at the earliest. Both factions in government thought they could meanwhile repair their damaged images.
Yet they needed to justify the long absence of PC elections that was addressed through quite an unnecessary “de-limitation” process for PCs. Provisions for de-limitations were included in the Amendment to the PC Elections Act No.17 of 2017. In collaboration with the EC, the de-limitation process itself was dragged on with lame excuses and the required legal process was not duly completed in parliament. It was this muddled political agenda the then EC tagged along with, for fringe benefits they could rake in.
Then EC chairman Deshapriya briefed a group of Opposition MPs in 2019 January to say there is no valid law to hold PC elections as the PC Elections (Amended) Act No.17 of 2017 has repealed the PC Elections Act No. 02 of 1988, I wrote to Deshapriya immediately on 19 January (2019) to say, I believe the EC is aware that in fact is not the truth. No country in this modern world allows for a legal lacuna in establishing a new law. The tradition, the practise and the legal position is to have the existing law as valid, till a new law or amendment is legally and effectively established. This is very clearly explained in the “Interpretation Ordinance”. In Section 06(2) of the Interpretation Ordinance it is said, “Whenever any written law repeals in whole or part a former written law and substitutes therefore some new provision, such repeal shall not take effect until such substituted provision comes into operation.” (emphasis added)
Yet again when incumbent EC Chairman R.M.A.L Rathnayake told an English daily in May 2025 that he cannot hold PC elections unless the government completes the de-limitation process or amend the existing law to allow PC elections, I wrote to him on 21 May, 2025 to say, “….this argument is an old invalid argument that was used by the previous Chairman of the EC Mahinda Deshapriya too, to tag along with the politics of the ruling government”.
I also wrote in that letter, “Six years ago on 19 April 2019, I wrote about this side-stepping in my Daily Mirror article titled ‘Political Mess We Wish To Continue With’ wherein I said, It is not the responsibility of the EC and its Chairman to intervene in making new law. Their responsibility is to deliver on existing law. That’s precisely what the EC is not doing. Instead, they are violating the PC Election Act No.02 of 1988, still the valid provincial council election law of this land.”
That holds true to date as the EC is ignoring the Interpretation Ordinance the EC has to stay with, in relation to the PC Elections (Amended) Act No.17 of 2017. As EC Chairman Rathnayake and the DG also accept, it is an incomplete Act that cannot be enforced as yet. Therefore “until such substituted provision comes into operation”, the PC Election Act No.02 of 1988 remains the law and there is absolutely no bar in holding PC elections within the next 03 months, before Christmas 2025.
I would therefore conclude this with the crude statement, the top bureaucracy and “independent commissioners” who are maintained with public funds may tag along as political stooges if they wish to for their own personal benefits, but, they should not distort law and lie to the public who fund them in office. They should hold PC elections under the existing law that still remains the law of the land.
– Kusal Perera
17 September, 2025
