The Southern Provincial Council endorsed a resolution seeking amendments to the new Provincial Council Elections Act recently passed in Parliament with a majority of 17 votes.
The resolution, signed by 18 councillors, was submitted to the Council Chairman requesting him to allow the resolution to be tabled in the House as an urgent item in the day’s agenda. Accordingly, Council Deputy Chairman Sampath Athukorala presented the resolution, seconded by councillor Weerasumana Weerasinghe.
The resolution demands that the proposed proportional representation structure introduced in the new law should be amended to read as 70 percent councillors who contested under the electoral basis be elected from list 1 and 30 percent be selected from list 2 according to the Proportionate Representation system. The present law dictates the above representations to be 50 percent each.
Presenting the resolution, Sampath Athukorala told the House that the new election law under which the recent Local Government polls were conducted, had created immense practical problems and distorted representations. The new proportionate representation mechanism introduced by the new Provincial Council Election Act would generate serious complexities, he said. Following the submission of the proposal, Provincial Minister U. G. D. Ariyathilake made a request to suspend the debate on the resolution as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party councillors had to take part in a special meeting convened by the President’s Office. Thereafter, Opposition Leader Tennakoon Nilame also said that almost all the UNP councillors also had to go to Colombo for an urgent meeting and asked for a reschedule of the debate on the move.
However, Chairman K. A. Somawansa opted to take up the debate on the proposal with the remaining number of councillors numbering 29. Accordingly, councillors Chandana Priyantha, Saman Cyril Kumara, D.V.Upul, and Aruna Gunarathe participated in the debate.
Finally, Chairman Somawansa took a vote over the proposal for which 23 councillors voted for while six councillors voted against it. Three UNP members and three JVP members who were present in the House voted against the move.
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