LG system needs a total overhaul

• LG bodies carry out important functions at grass-root level which cannot be monitored by the Parliament or provincial councils 

Although the Local Government (LG) elections have to be held once in four years, they have been scheduled this time for May 6, after a lapse of seven years. Last time the LG polls were held on February 10, 2018 at which the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) secured a landslide victory, bagging over 239 out of 340 councils.  

In Sri Lanka we have three tiers of people’s representative councils, namely Parliament, provincial councils and the local government bodies. The local government bodies are categorized as municipal councils, urban councils and pradeshiya sabhas. LG bodies carry out important functions at grass-root level such as disposal of garbage, street lighting, construction and maintenance of rural roads as well as canals and approval of housing constructions, among others which cannot properly and closely be monitored by the parliament or provincial councils.

Yet, election of representatives for these councils in most cases is decided by the government of the day, not by the law, as it has to be. Hence, they are postponed by the governments in power at will, until a time favourable for them dawns. In spite of the LG mechanism intact irrespective of whether elections are being held or not, the component of public representation within this mechanism is hindered when elections are postponed inordinately. 

The elections for the LG bodies have not been conducted according to the four-year time frame specified in the relevant laws since 2006 elections. It was only in 2011, after a year’s postponement, that those elections were held, yet on a staggered basis. 

The next elections that were to be held in 2015 was caught in a legal snag and political manipulations both by the ruling United National Party (UNP) led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the main Opposition, United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

The problem cropped up in 2012, during the Rajapaksa administration when the electoral system for the LG bodies was changed from proportional representation (PR) to a mixed system of both PR system and the first-past-the-post system. 

With this change, a delimitation process to demarcate the boundaries of wards within each local council area was commenced and it dragged on till 2017. Although both the UPFA government and the so-called Yahapalana government that came to power in 2015 could have conducted these elections under the previous PR system while the delimitation process was on, a gazette notification had been issued by the subject minister on January 1, 2013 preventing them from doing so. The gazette provided for the new mixed system to be in operation immediately.  
There were two delimitation committees then, one after the other, and a Cabinet sub-committee for the demarcation of boundaries wards. After four years of protraction of the delimitation process the Chairman of the second delimitation committee, Asoka Peiris openly told media that the subject Minister was asking him to drag on with his committee’s report and that both the main political parties were keen to delay the process. This was a very good case in point to show how democracy had suffered at the hands of major political parties. 

The LG election this time was expected to be conducted in 2022, but both the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government and the Opposition chose to postpone the polls by one year due to the economic crisis. However, sensing an unprecedented major mind change in the electorate, President Ranil Wickremesinghe backed by the SLPP postponed the elections indefinitely in 2023 by not releasing funds for it, on the pretext of financial constraints after various other failed manipulations. 

However, the Supreme Court ruled last year that the President as the finance minister and the Election Commission had violated the fundamental rights of the people by the deferral of LG elections. Hence, laws must be introduced to prevent the politicians from manipulating electoral processes. 

Although the last LG elections saw a large number of unstable councils as a result of the mixed electoral system having created ruling parties smaller than the Opposition, the authorities failed to address the issue for the past seven years. There are other issues as well concerning the powers and revenue of LG bodies. All in all, the LG system demands a total overhaul of it. 

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