A parliamentary select committee will be appointed to review the legal position on holding elections for nine provincial councils, the Sri Lankan Government announced on Saturday. The provincial elections have not been held since 2018 due to the want of resolving legal snags since the attempt to reform the electoral system. Leader of the House and senior minister Bimal Ratnayake told parliament that the committee would look at ways to hold the election sooner. The parliament did not appoint the delimitation committee needed for reforms - to switch from the existing system of proportional representation to a mixed system. A decision has to be taken and parliament must vote to stay with the existing system as desired by most parties.
An elected provincial council for each of the nine provinces was introduced as a result of direct intervention by the then Indian Government under Rajiv Gandhi to broker a settlement to the Tamil minority demand for political autonomy. The 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord prescribed the system of political power to the provinces with a merged council for the north and east provinces - the areas of Tamil inhabitation. India, in recent months, has publicly called for an early conduct of the election. The last elections for the provinces were conducted in 2013 and 2014.
