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When then Presidential hopeful Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared mid last year to the National Peoples’ Party (NPP)’s overseas faithful that Sri Lanka’s Provincial Council (PC) system will ‘continue till a new system is identified to create harmony among the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities’ (London, June 2024), no one quite questioned as to what that ‘new system’ was going to be.

 A hazy promise of ‘a new system’

Neither did the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)- led NPP’s manifesto provide concrete answers to that question. Mr Dissanayake also stated, unsurprisingly so given the JVP’s historical enmity towards the PC system, that ‘the NPP will never accept the PC system as a solution to the national question.’ To be fair, that has been a consistent position taken by the JVP though one is not quite sure as to how and in what way the NPP’s so-called ‘progressives’ would agree.

Regardless, it was assured by the NPP both during the election campaign and after assuming state power, that the PC’s will be continued for the ‘time being.’ Quoting the President, this was due to the fact that ‘Tamil and Muslim voters feel that this is a right that they have won.’ In the meantime, this ‘new system’ promised by the NPP as the panacea to the nation’s national ills, remained hazy at best.

This is so even after the NPP Government marks one year of holding state power. In fact, one cannot perforce be curious about such a powerful formula of ‘nation building’ which the NPP conjures up, much like a magician waving his magic wand to produce a rabbit from his hat. Regardless, this formula of a ‘new system’ should have been presented much earlier given that it is precisely this solution which has eluded the nation since independence.

Familiarly specious excuses
of ‘delimitation’

But putting political magic firmly aside, the Government’s adherence to the Rule of Law is becoming seriously challenged.  Given that there is palpable foot-dragging on holding the highly overdue PC elections, a fundamental doubt arises as to the veracity of NPP promises that the PC system will not be dispensed with willy nilly. What we hear is the familiarly specious excuse of its predecessors in power.

This is that elections can be held only after the ‘delimitation process is completed in respect of a new electoral system,’ essentially a mixed member proportional system.’ But there is little response to the question as to when that delimitation process will start (if at all) quite apart from as to when it will end other than reassuring noises from the Foreign Affairs Minister that it will be ‘next year.’

This reminds one of the ‘soon, soon’ status of NPP’s new anti-terror law meant to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) which was supposed to be gazetted in September this year, then October and in regard to which now, there is marked silence from the Government. Even so, to return to the vexed question of Sri Lanka’s traumatised PCs, several questions arise.

Killing several birds with
one stone?

First and foremost, is the delaying of PC elections attributable to more than what meets the eye, taking the Government’s plea of completing the ‘delimitation process’ into consideration? There is, of course, the overall political assessment which has some sense to it; namely that the NPP Government is becoming more allergic to nationwide elections.

This is due to mortifying setbacks that it has had to face in local government and cooperative elections. But even more to the point, other factors emerge. Put bluntly, are the PC polls being delayed long enough to coincide with the NPP’s much trumpeted constitutional reforms where presumably this ‘new system’ advanced as a panacea for Sri Lanka’s ‘national question’ is trotted out?

If so, that will essentially be killing two or indeed more politically jaundiced birds with one well-placed stone. In other words, there will not be the embarrassment of ‘functioning PCs’ to cope with at that point of time. Rather, it will be the ‘dysfunctional PCs’ which could be constitutionally disposed of in one fell swoop as it were. Certainly if there is any desire to prove its naysayers wrong, there is an easy solution in sight.

The iniquitous 2017 Amendment

The NPP with its overriding majority in Parliament, can right the legislative wrong that was unconscionably done to the Provincial Councils Act.This is what led to the stalemate in the first place. Earlier, PC elections had been held under the proportional representation system. The switch from that system to a mixed member system in 2017 was far from a properly legislated measure.

On the contrary, this was accomplished through a most iniquitous sledge of hand when this switch-over of systems was foisted onto an amendment to the Provincial Councils Elections Act in 2017. That was under the tumultuous Sirisena-Wickremesinghe ‘yahapalanaya‘ (good governance) coalition where the amendment had been gazetted and placed on the Order Paper.

It was examined for constitutionality by the Supreme Court in its initial form with its thrust being confined to a specific securing of a gender quota for nominations to these elections. However, once before the House, the amendment entirely changed its form and character during the committee stage sittings. What was supposed to be an amendment securing a gender quota was transformed into changing the electoral system to PCs.

Adhering to the law, warts and all

Thus, the amendment became a legislative device enabling the then administration to postpone PC elections indefinitely. Coupled with reports of delimitation committees that went nowhere as the Government and the Opposition colluded in mocking the legislative process, what we had was a political fait accompli.

This violently anti-democratic mockery of the legislative process was under the stewardship of an administration coming into power on a ‘good governance’ platform. This truth needs to be reiterated for those of Mr Wickremesinghe’s cheerleaders with stubbornly short memories. From that point, the PCs were conveniently kept under the political control of Governors.

These appointees were periodically dispensed with and replaced by new loyalists when Governments changed hands. But to reiterate, the NPP Government, with its ‘unprecedented mandate’ and taking its election promises into account, can right this legislative wrong if it wishes to. To be clear, this discussion is not about the political integrity of Sri Lanka’s provincial bodies.

Not about the integrity of PCs

Provincial Councils have demonstrated the most horrendous corruption in their functioning. These councils have been political springboards for the wives, progeny and relatives of national level parliamentarians. They have used the provincial platforms to parachute into the political process. But as the inevitable argument goes, that same corruption visits all elected bodies from local government wards to the highest assembly, the Parliament.

In essence, Sri Lanka’s severely traumatised PC system, warts and all, remains part of the country’s constitutional, legal and political architecture unless and until it is abolished. As such, there is no question that the constitutional right of voters to exercise their franchise in regard to the elections to the PCs is being infringed by this continuing denial.

This is the same as the right of voters being infringed by the Wickremesinghe Presidency to hold the local government elections on the basis that there was no money in the national coffers. Meanwhile, regardless of what the well intentioned may say about petitioning the Courts, the answer does not lie in the courtrooms.

The solution lies in
the political arena

As long as the impugned 2017 amendment to the Provincial Council Act stands, the need for a proper delimitation process to be concluded is a sine qua non as was reminded by the Supreme Court in 2019 when petitioned to answer that question.

Correcting that democratic violation, where the PC elections are concerned, remains a political decision on the most basic premise. We will wait to see if the NPP’s moralising chant of ‘we are the best, everyone else are pariahs’ will yet live up to its promise.