Press Trust of India
COLOMBO, 1 AUG: The much-awaited provincial council election in Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil-dominated northern areas will be held on 21 September, expected to give limited autonomy to the community in the war-ravaged region after 25 years.
Elections for the central and northwestern provincial councils will also be held on the same day, the Sri Lankan election secretariat said today. The process of filing nominations for political parties and independent groups to contest the election were closed at 12 noon (local time) today.
The election is seen as crucial by international observers who regard it as a major step towards reconciliation with the nation’s Tamil minority since the end of a three-decade-long civil war in 2009 when government troops defeated LTTE rebels fighting for a separate Tamil homeland.
The northern council polls ~ the first ever since the provincial councils became part of Sri Lanka’s statutes in 1987 ~ were held back given the resettlement and rehabilitation in the war-ravaged areas.
In the first north and east provincial council elections held in 1988, only one political party participated due to the LTTE’s armed campaign to set up a separate Tamil homeland. The two provinces de-merged in 2006 as a result of a court order and the first ever eastern provincial council election was held in 2008. This time, the election is expected to be keenly contested between the ruling UPFA coalition and Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
The TNA has fielded a formidable set of candidates, with retired Supreme Court judge C V Wigneswaran as its chief ministerial candidate.
Meanwhile, leader of the ruling UPFA (United People’s Freedom Alliance), Douglas Devananda, who is a central government minister, did not come forward as a chief ministerial nominee, despite his popularity. The election preparations have been marred by the government’s move to dilute the powers of the provinces, especially to control land and the provincial police force.
India, the main architect of the provincial councils in Sri Lanka, has insisted that unfettered powers must be allowed to remain with the councils despite demands from President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s nationalist allies to scrap them.