By Sandun A. Jayasekera

The Provincial Councils election will be held in the second half of this year under a new PC electoral Act, Lands and Land Development Minister S. M. Chandrasena said yesterday.
He added that the cabinet gave the nod to amend the PC Election Act on Monday and therefore PC polls could be held only under the necessary legal background was set in place.   
Meanwhile, Co Cabinet spokesman, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said the new amendments approved by the cabinet on Monday to the Provincial Council Election Act will increase the number of PC members as all 25 districts will get two members each.   

Addressing the weekly cabinet news briefing, Minister Gammanpila said under the current PC election law, in an election, only two bonus seats are given to the political party that polls the biggest number of votes. Under the proposed amendments, the winning political party will get two bonus seats each to all Districts in the province   

“This means, the Western Province will get six seats for Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara in place of current two seats. For the North Central, four seats will be allocated for Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa instead of current two seats. This will apply to all nine provinces.     The amendments also envisages to bring an electoral system with 70% of members under the first past the post system and 30% under the PR system.   

The amendments also propose to nominate three candidates by each political party to a district at an election.   
However, the final decision on this matter would be taken after consulting all political parties, Minister Gammanpila said.