The SLFP maintains the position that the upcoming Local Government (LG) elections should be held under the new LG electoral system because the SLFP canvassed for it, Science, Technology and Research Minister Susil Premajayantha told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
Political parties which are today opposing the new LG electoral system, didn’t object to it at that time. This Bill was unanimously passed in Parliament in 2012, he said. Minister Premajayantha said after four years, some political parties can’t today oppose the new electoral system. The SLFP is fully for the new electoral system, not the old system.
The SLFP’s position regarding the upcoming LG polls is when the delimitation is over, amendments can be made to the Act and elections could be held, he said.
TNA Spokesperson and TNA Jaffna District Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran told the Sunday Observer that the TNA wants the LG elections to be held and they don’t want any democratic process to be stalled.
“The new LG electoral system was unanimously approved Parliament. We have no preferences. If the new system and the new delimitation exercise is not satisfactory and some people want to go back to the old system, we have no objection to it as well. We will have to amend the law again to go back to the old system. We have to repeal all the amendments that were brought in and then elections can be held under the old system,” he said.
He said as far as the LG elections are concerned, the law was amended and it was further amended to include women’s participation. Then the delimitation exercise was revived and that took a lot of time. Now that it has been completed, the LG elections could be held. Sumanthiran said, “We are agreeable to any system, because in the areas we represent, we will take control of all the Local Councils whatever the system.”