News
Question mark still over CMC while alliances sought for other councils
View(s):By Sandun Jayawardana
Behind the scenes negotiations are continuing among various political parties and independent groups to form administrations in more than 150 local councils where no party or group has obtained an outright majority.
The National People’s Power (NPP) won 265 local councils of the 339 to which polls were held on Tuesday (6). Though the party has an outright majority in about 116 councils, the number of opposition members exceed those of the NPP in 120 councils the party has won, while the number of NPP and opposition members are equal in the remaining 29. The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) won 14 local government bodies but it too does not have an outright majority in most of the councils it has won. 
At a press conference held the day after the elections, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) General Secretary Tilvin Silva ruled out the NPP forming alliances with what he claimed were “political parties rejected by the people,” essentially shutting the door of their being any collaboration between the NPP and other mainstream opposition parties such as the SJB, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) in forming administrations in local government bodies. Mr. Silva however, said the NPP is open to obtaining support from candidates who had contested and had been elected to local councils independently. He also said members from any mainstream opposition party were also welcome to support the NPP independently when forming administrations.
Government ministers too have insisted over the past few days that the NPP has the power and the “moral right” to form administrations in all local councils where the party won the largest share of the vote.
Many opposition parties however, are claiming they too can form administrations of local councils by combining their numbers and working together.
A big question mark remains on who will be able to form the administration of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) where the NPP won a historic victory, with 48 members being elected. However, the party still fell short of a majority, with 69 of the MC being made up of members from other political parties and independent groups. The SJB, which saw 29 members being elected, has already stated that the UNP, which has 13 members, has pledged unconditional support to electing an SJB member as mayor. SJB Colombo District MP Mujibur Rahman told the Sunday Times on Friday that negotiations with other political parties and independent groups on forming local council administrations were still ongoing and were yet to be finalized. The NPP too is known to be speaking to members of political parties and independent groups. 
The People’s Alliance (PA), which has 300 members on the local councils, has received invitations to collaborate in forming administrations. The party is also in a position to form administrations in some local councils and hence, it too has sent out its own invitations to other parties to assist it to do so, PA Secretary Lasantha Alagiyawanna said. “It is not a case of one opposition party being able to form administrations. We too have asked other opposition parties to assist us to form administrations,” he said. Mr Alagiyawanna pointed out that the NPP has already ruled out collaborating with other opposition parties and as such, he said opposition parties will look at working together to form their own administrations.
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