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By Sandun Jayawardana  

Bitterly fought battles to form the administration of local councils where no political party or independent group had obtained an outright majority reverberated in the House throughout this week.

The first day’s debate of this Parliamentary week on Tuesday (17) followed the controversial election that saw the ruling National People’s Power (NPP) win control of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) the day before.  

Tuesday’s (17) debate however, saw the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) led opposition walk out in protest at the conduct of Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne. The SJB walked out after accusing the Speaker of not giving Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and Chief Opposition Whip Gayantha Karunathilaka an opportunity to raise the issue of the impact of the Israel-Iran conflict on Sri Lanka. Only the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) opted to stay behind among the opposition parties to take part in the day’s debate on the Regulations under the Convention Against Doping in Sports Act. However, a number of MPs opted to refer to the continued battle over the formation of local councils.

ITAK Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam noted that 11 out of the 12 local government bodies in the Batticaloa district had been formed, but pointed out that the NPP had not been able to win either the chairperson or deputy chairperson post in any of those councils. He accused the NPP of “shamefully” courting the support of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) of former State Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias “Pillayan.” He claimed the TMVP had also approached ITAK to request ITAK’s support in forming local councils in the East but that the party had rejected the request because in principle, it did not wish to work with the TMVP.

“Pillayan is someone who is currently in prison over the Easter Sunday attack and other murders. But the NPP teamed up with Pillayan to try and gain control of the Chenkaladi Pradeshiya Sabha, but they lost. I don’t believe any ministers in the front row of the government or the President approves of these efforts to team up with Pillayan. These things are done by those in the district,” Mr. Rasamanickam said.

The government meanwhile, took aim at the alliance the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) had formed with several other opposition parties, including the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). Deputy Minister of Labour Mahinda Jayasinghe reminded that Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa had publicly declared that his SJB will never align with the SLPP, which he had accused of being corrupt and of spreading racism. “But look at them now. They have got together with the SLPP to form local councils. Where is their conscience? They don’t have one.”

There was more talk about local council formation when other opposition parties returned to the House for Wednesday’s debate. SJB Colombo District MP Mujibur Rahman, who had been at the forefront of the party’s efforts to win control of the CMC, took issue with the conduct of the Western Province Local Government Commissioner who presided over the election for the Mayor of Colombo, and accused the commissioner of being partial to the NPP. He also hit back at the NPP’s criticism of the SJB’s arrangement with other opposition parties including the SLPP to gain control of local government bodies, pointing out that the NPP’s main constituent partner the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had also worked with former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa and even Ranil Wickremesinghe at different periods. All of these were leaders that the JVP had vehemently criticised before, he pointed out.

When President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was in the opposition, he described secret ballots, which the NPP is a strong advocate of now, as a corrupt form of voting, SLPP Galle District MP Chanaka Madugoda told the House. “The voters expect their elected representatives to vote openly when they are elected to their local councils,” he argued.

Kurunegala District SJB MP Nalin Bandara however, claimed the combined opposition was still on target to win control of 100 local councils. “I did the calculations this morning and we have already formed 58 councils and need only 42 more. We might just be able to hit a century as there are a lot of local government bodies to which elections are still to be held,” he added. Mr. Bandara also accused the NPP of obtaining support of individual members of opposition parties, some of whom have serious corruption allegations against them. “This shows that you will do any underhand thing to grab power,” he told the government.

While the government had accused the opposition of being a group of “scraps” trying to form administrations, noted Colombo District SJB MP Harsha De Silva, the government was doing the same thing in its own efforts at forming local councils, he pointed out. “They said before the election that everyone else other than the NPP are thieves, so are they not scraps or thieves now?”

Dr. De Silva said there was no point in making deals to win control of the local councils. “If a deal is to be made, it should be done with (US President) Donald Trump,” he insisted, pointing out that time was running out for Sri Lanka to clinch a trade deal with the US to avert significant tariffs on Sri Lanka’s exports to the US.

Industries Minister Sunil Handunnetti dismissed accusations from the opposition that the government had formed “unholy alliances” to form local councils. “Just because the NPP obtained support from members of some independent groups or individual members of political parties, these opposition parties are acting as if their virginity was taken from them,” scoffed Minister Handunnetti. “They are telling us that they never even dreamed that such things could happen. Well, a lot of things will happen in the future that they never dreamed of before,” the minister quipped.