Minor parties want LG polls under PR system

Minor parties supporting the government had told Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that the local government elections should be held according to the Proportional Representation (PR) system.

The leaders of these parties, including the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the All Ceylon Muslim Congress (ACMC), the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP), the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the United Socialist Party (USP) had said so when they met the prime minister at Temple Trees last evening.

One of the party leaders told Daily Mirror that they said they were not in favour of the proposed new system, under which 30 percent of the local government members would be elected according to the PR system and 70 percent according to the ward system. They had said the minor parties would not gain anything if the elections were held according to the new system and they would not contest if the elections were held according to the new system.

This party leader said they had also told him they would contest separately even under the PR system.

Mr Wickremeisnghe had then told the party leaders that he would have to discuss the matter with the President before agreeing to anything.

Ministers Mano Ganesan and Rauff Hakeem, MPs Douglas Devananda and M A Sumanthiran, and United Socialist Party leader Siritunga Jayasuriya had participated in the meeting. The leaders of the other minority parties had been in contact with those at the meeting though they were not present.

The party leaders had also met the Indian Foreign Secretary S Jayasankar and discussed several issues concerning the minorities, including education, health and housing and how India could assist Sri Lanka in these sectors. (Yohan Perera)