PC elections: Missing the forest for the trees

The Government was determined to postpone the impending Provincial Council elections by the 20th Amendment – or by a bill gathering dust in the Legal Draftsman’s Department. And so, with the Supreme Court determination on the Constitutionality of the 20th Amendment (which was to hold all PC elections on a single day) being torpedoed by calling for a Referendum of the people, the Government came up with ‘Plan B’ – i.e. to delay the elections by constituting electorates within a province. It would be a delimitation process that could see months-on-end delays, even though time limits were solemnly given in Parliament, just like what the Government has done with electoral reforms delaying Local Government polls.

The Government’s fear of mid-term elections is patently, and manifestly clear. Of the two partners within the National Unity Government, the UNP-led UNF is at a distinct advantage given the SLFP-led UPFA being split down the middle. The biggest nightmare President Maithripala Sirisena harbours is if the UPFA that he leads comes a poor third in an electoral contest to the UNP and the UPFA faction led by his predecessor and nemesis, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

All this dust pitifully revolves around elections to Provincial Councils, as if elections are the panacea to all the ills of these nine costly ‘white elephants’. Both factions of the SLFP took to the streets when laws were introduced in 1987 to establish these PCs. Now, at least one faction sees virtues in it for no other reason than one-upmanship over the other. The Rajapaksa Administration used these elections to demoralise the Opposition UNP by repeatedly defeating it, only to come a cropper at the ‘big race’.

If the Government had wanted to put off these elections come-what-may, a better alternative would have been to reconsider this entire system that was forced down Sri Lanka’s throat in 1987. Alas, the All Party Constitutional Steering Committee drafting a new Constitution seems to say that PCs have come to stay.

Today, these PCs are viewed, not so much as the decentralisation of power or the nurseries for future political leaders, but through tinted political glasses. Are they all missing the forest for the trees? No. 08, Hunupitiya Cross Road, Colombo 02. P.O. Box 1136, Colombo editor@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2331276 news@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479332, 2328889, 2331276 features@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479312, 2328889,2331276 pictures@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479323, 2479315 sports@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479311 bt@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479319 funtimes@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479337, 2331276 2479540, 2479579, 2479725 2479629, 2477628, 2459725