Opposition and 41 monitoring organizations agree to hold Provincial Council elections under the old system

Opposition political parties and 41 election monitoring organizations have reached a broad consensus that the Provincial Council election should be held expeditiously without further delay, and that the old electoral system that existed before the introduction of Act No. 17 of 2017 should be re-implemented for this purpose. This decision was reached at a special discussion organized yesterday (26) at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute in Colombo, under the leadership of the PAFFREL organization, and the parties involved signed a joint statement related to it.

42 opposition political parties and monitoring organizations participated in this discussion, and all parties except one political party signed the relevant joint statement. It was decided at the meeting to submit this joint statement to the Parliamentary Select Committee as well as to the ruling party. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that all parties agreed to ensure 25% representation for women and youth on a voluntary basis.

During this meeting, attended by political party secretaries, representatives, and representatives of monitoring organizations, the importance of holding the Provincial Council election, the reasons for its postponement, and the future steps to be taken to hold it expeditiously were discussed at length.

Representing the opposition at this event were Talatha Athukorala, General Secretary of the United National Party; Member of Parliament Ranjith Madduma Bandara, General Secretary of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya; former Member of Parliament Sagara Kariyawasam, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna; and former Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Secretary of the People's United Front. Also present were Uvindu Wijeweera, Chief Secretary of the Second Generation Party; Sirithunga Jayasuriya, Chief Secretary of the United Socialist Party; Member of Parliament Shanakiyan Rasamanickam representing Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi; Sameera Senanayake, Senior Vice President of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya; M.I. Murugan, Central Committee Member of the EPDP; and Bandula Chandrasekara, Secretary of the United Republican Front.

Additionally, representing the opposition at this discussion were Dr. K. Vigneshwaran, leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress; Member of Parliament Mano Ganesan, leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance; Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne, Central Committee Member of the United Left Front; former Member of Parliament M. Thilakaraj, Chief Secretary of the Malaiyaha Arasiyal Arangam; W.D.S. Weerasinghe, member of the Janasetha Peramuna; former Member of Parliament Weerasumana Weerasinghe of the Communist Party; Wilfred Jayasinghe, member of the Socialist People's Front; G. Thilakasiri, member of the Democratic Left Front; Nizam Kariyappar, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress; and Nalaka Perera, Chief Secretary of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya.

Representing election monitoring organizations were Mahinda Deshapriya, patron of the 'VIEW' Institute and former Chairman of the Election Commission; Manjula Gajanayake, Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Elections Monitoring and Studies; Manas Makeen, Executive Director of the CAFFE organization; and Rasanga Harischandra, National Organizer of the National Election Monitoring Centre.

Representing the ruling party at this meeting was Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe, General Secretary of the National People's Power, and the four opposition Members of Parliament representing the Parliamentary Special Committee appointed to investigate and submit proposals and recommendations on the electoral system to be used for the Provincial Council election also participated in this discussion.