Milinda Moragoda wants parliamentary elections held first

Former minister cum founder of the Pathfinder Foundation Milinda Moragoda called on the new Government to refrain from holding Provincial Council elections prior to the parliamentary elections.

He suggested that the

He suggested that the Government, as part of the expected Constitutional overhaul, should seek to mobilise the necessary two-thirds majority to repeal the 13th Amendment and thereby abolish the Provincial Council system at the conclusion of parliamentary elections

Government, as part of the expected Constitutional overhaul, should seek to mobilise the necessary twothirds majority to repeal the 13th Amendment and thereby abolish the Provincial Council system at the conclusion of parliamentary elections. Mr.moragoda reiterated his earlier proposal that the Provincial Councils should be abolished and power directly devolved to empowered and reconfigured Local, Urban and Municipal Councils. “Since these bodies operate closest to the citizenry, they are in a better position to address and solve community-level problems. The original intent of the 13th Amendment enacted in 1987 was to create more provincial autonomy in order to help resolve Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem. Instead, this structure has proven to be superfluous, expensive, divisive and fraught with inefficiency,” he said.

Mr. Moragoda also proposed that an empowered Senate or Upper House be set up to address issues concerning religious, ethnic, and regional diversity.