All nine Provincial Councils dissolved from October 8, 2019

• The term of the Uva Provincial Council comes to an end on Monday October 7, 2019   

By Yohan Perera   

All nine provincial councils will stand dissolved from October 8, 2019 when the term of the Uva Provincial Council comes to an end on Monday October 7, 2019.   

The term of the other provincial councils were dissolved in 2018 and in 2019.   Accordingly the term of the Northern Provincial Council came to an end on October 25 2018, the Central Province on October 8 2018, North Western Province on October 10 2018, Sabaragamuwa on September 26 2018, Eastern Province on September 30th 2018, North Central Province October 1 2018, Southern Province on April 10 2019, while the term of the Western Provincial Council came to an end on April 21 2019. The Uva Province will enter into the final week of its term from next Monday, October 1 2019. 

However holding of elections have become an issue, as the Supreme Court has stated that the elections cannot be held under the current law. This opinion was viewed by a five member bench of Supreme Court judges in response to a query made by President Sirisena recently. The bench said the President is not empowered to declare electoral district boundaries unilaterally, in the absence of the report of the delimitation review committee chaired by the Prime Minister.   

Delimitation ran into controversy after its committee report was rejected by Parliament in March 2018, when the ruling party and the Opposition rejected it citing several issues. 

• Holding of elections have become an issue, as the Supreme Court has  stated that the elections cannot be held under the current law