Although frequent announcements by Sri Lankan government leaders about holding Provincial Council (PC) elections next year are still far from promising, calls for early elections have intensified in recent days both in the south, north and east for different reasons.

Believing that the government has begun to lose public support after a significant drop in the votes of the ruling National People’s Power (NPP) in the local government elections held in May this year, compared to last year’s parliamentary elections, the opposition parties in the  south expect the ruling party to suffer a severe setback in any future elections.

That is why they are asking the government to hold PC elections within this year without delay. Some opposition politicians are seen even challenging the government to hold elections if it dares.

There is another reason for this opposition’s call for the elections. It is a political necessity for these parties to either take over the administration in the next tier of the governance system, the PCs as it is unlikely to come to power at the Centre in the near future. Otherwise, it will be a challenge to safeguard the already severely weakened party structures. Almost all politicians cannot be expected to remain loyal to their parties’ leadership unless they are in positions of power at some level.

For the opposition, the demand for PCs elections has nothing to do with devolution of power. Sajith Premadasa, leader of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the United National Party (UNP) promised in their election manifestos to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution during the last presidential election. But,  they are now only asking for PC elections, without talking about the implementation of that Amendment.

However, the demands for the elections of the northern and eastern Tamil political parties have a different basis. Except for a few parties, most of the Tamil parties now have a serious interest in preserving the provincial governance system.

A year after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office, the Ilankai Thamizharasu Katchi (ITAK) sent a letter asking for time to have discussions with him, pointing out that the government was not interested in implementing the promises he had made in his election manifesto to find solutions to the pressing problems of the Tamils.

Ministers like  Ramalingam Chandrasekhar told the media that the President would talk to the ITAK representatives,  but there was no response from the President himself. 

At the same time, the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), led by former parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran, has been holding seminars in the north and east recently on the need to protect the 13th Amendment and the PC system, the only power-sharing arrangement in the Sri Lankan constitution.

Annamalai Varadharaja Perumal, the first and last Chief Minister of the merged North-Eastern Province, has been holding meetings with the Tamil and Muslim political parties and various sections of civil society, including the university community, to create awareness among the Tamil people about the imperative to preserve the PC system.

Thus, after a long period of indifference, the emergence of some kind of concern among the Tamil polity about the PC elections is certainly to be welcomed.

Despite the fact that 38 years have passed since the introduction of the PC system following the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord, it has not been properly implemented. The successive governments were not interested in the effective functioning of the PCs, but only in holding provincial council elections. All governments ensured that the 13th Amendment was not properly and fully implemented.

Apart from this, in the last more than three decades, the central governments have usurped most of the powers of the PCs  through various legislations. Apart from appealing to the Sri Lankan governments to fully implement the 13th Amendment, even India has not been able to do anything. Given the current geopolitical situation, New Delhi cannot be expected to continue to make such a request and take any concrete action on the ethnic issue that could cause discomfort to Colombo. 

Elections to the PCs  have not been held since the delimitation dispute, which was the result of a law passed in parliament eight years ago to hold PC  elections in a mixed system similar to local government  elections.

The NPP  government is not ready to bring a bill in Parliament to bypass the delimitation process and hold the elections in the present system of proportional representation. For that purpose, the government is not even ready to cooperate with the passage of the bills brought by the Tamil parliamentarians in the form of a private member motion. 

Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya and some  ministers say elections will be held early next year once the delimitation process is complete, while other ministers say that  government will hold elections, albeit under a proportional representation system. As a result, the issue of PC elections is in a state of confusion.

It is against this background that the Tamil parties in the North and East are keen on the preservation of the provincial governance system. At the same time, those who hold the position that the Tamils will not be able to derive any benefit from the PC system and that it will never be possible to devolve power effectively under a unitary state, are not suggesting any immediate alternative. 

The JVP-led NPP government is in power today, with a bitter past that has strongly opposed not only the PC  system when it was introduced, but all past attempts to find a solution to the ethnic problem. The government has already announced that the process of drafting a new constitution will begin soon.

Given the opposition to the 13th Amendment in southern Sri Lanka, particularly among Sinhala nationalist forces, the question arises as to what form devolution of power will be included in the constitution that the government proposes to bring in.

Government leaders claim that the PC system will remain in place until the new constitution is passed, but they make no comments to reassure minority communities that effective devolutionary arrangements will be in place.

The NPP will not take any action that could antagonise the Sinhala nationalist forces on the ethnic issue. The opposition parties, especially the Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and their allied nationalist forces, are waiting for an opportunity to carry out their campaigns against the government on communal lines.

At the same time, the Tamil political parties do not have the capacity to wage a democratic  political movement  that could force the government to come up with at least a less  power-sharing arrangement if the 13 Amendment is removed.

Therefore, there is no alternative for the people of the North and East at present, except the PC system. If this reality is not grasped, it will be impossible to avoid a dangerous situation in which the Tamil people will be left with no power-sharing arrangement.

We can talk about long-term solutions forever. The Tamil parties have been talking about a political solution based on the federal system for three quarters of a century. But they didn’t have a roadmap to achieve it. 

Therefore, there is an urgent need to protect the provincial governance system despite its shortcomings. It is true that the central government has usurped most of the powers of the provinces. But it is also true that the Tamil parties have a great responsibility in not trying to use the provincial council system in the North and East with any residual powers it may have.

Therefore, it is the need of the hour to extend full support to the ongoing efforts of the Tamil parties to create awareness among the Tamil people on imperative of protecting the PC system.