The Opposition has withdrawn from the Parliamentary Select Committee appointed to determine the electoral system under which Provincial Council elections should be held, Samagi Jana Balawegaya General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara announced in Parliament on Friday.

The decision was taken because the committee’s activities are operating with the objective of delaying the Provincial Council polls, Madduma Bandara said, Hiru News reported.

The walkout came first

The announcement followed a boycott the previous day. The four opposition members of the committee — Madduma Bandara, Mano Ganesan, Shanakiyan Rasamanickam and Nizam Kariapper — stayed away from the committee’s 10th meeting, having concluded it was failing to show the seriousness and urgency the long-overdue elections require, the Daily FT reported.

Rasamanickam, speaking for the four, told the committee they could no longer support a process that had produced no meaningful progress across ten meetings.

He also warned that if the committee did not demonstrate serious political commitment, the four would “be compelled to take a very serious decision,” adding: “We do not wish to disclose the nature of that decision at this stage.” Neither outlet links that warning to Friday’s withdrawal, but the withdrawal is the step that followed it.

Two routes the opposition says are already available

Rasamanickam argued the committee is deliberating over a question Parliament can already answer. The Election Commission has put a proposal to the committee to hold the elections under the existing proportional representation system, including a provision guaranteeing 25 percent representation for women. Separately, a Private Members’ Bill he presented on the conduct of Provincial Council elections already sits on the Order Paper and could be taken up if a majority of members agree.

“Both practical and legislative options are already before Parliament,” he said. “What is required now is not a further prolonging of the process, but the political will to make a decision and take concrete steps towards holding the elections.”

He noted that the National People’s Power’s 2024 presidential election manifesto committed, on page 128, to holding Provincial Council and local government elections within a year of taking office.

The same day Parliament bought the committee more time

The withdrawal lands on the day Parliament approved extending the committee’s term to 17 December over opposition objections — an extension Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and others argued would postpone the elections.

That timetable is the sharp end of the dispute. Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said on 25 August the government would hold the polls if Parliament completed the necessary legislation and the delimitation process “within this year.” A committee reporting on 17 December leaves about two weeks for both.

Sri Lanka’s nine Provincial Councils have had no elected members since their terms began expiring in 2017, after the mixed electoral system introduced that year never took effect because the required ward delimitation was never completed.

Not reported

Neither outlet says whether the four members have formally resigned their seats on the committee or are boycotting it indefinitely, whether the government or committee chair Vijitha Herath responded, or what becomes of the committee’s quorum. Hiru News does not name the members beyond Madduma Bandara. No other verified newsroom had filed on the withdrawal at the time of writing; it was absent from the Daily Mirror, NewsFirst and EconomyNext listings, and Ada Derana was unreachable.

Update: it was a resignation, and the government answered

A third newsroom has filed on the withdrawal, and it settles the question this report left open.

The opposition members resigned from the committee, in protest at the extension of its timeframe to 17 December, the Daily Mirror reported. It was a resignation, not an indefinite boycott — the distinction this article previously noted neither Hiru News nor the Daily FT had drawn.

Madduma Bandara said the government’s move to extend the committee’s timeframe is aimed at avoiding holding the Provincial Council election this year as well. Rasamanickam said he walked out of the Select Committee meeting in protest at the extension.

The government’s response, which no earlier report carried

Chief Government Whip Nalinda Jayatissa replied directly, saying there is no move to avoid the election.

“We are also keen on holding the Provincial Council election,” he said.

That is the first on-the-record government answer to the opposition’s central charge. It is also the same minister who, as Cabinet Spokesman on 25 August, made the polls conditional on Parliament completing legislation and delimitation “within this year” — the condition a 17 December reporting date leaves roughly two weeks to satisfy.

Three names, not four

The Daily Mirror names three resigning members — Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Mano Ganesan and Shanakiyan Rasamanickam. The Daily FT named four opposition members at the boycott of the 10th meeting, including Nizam Kariapper. No outlet says whether Kariapper also resigned, or whether the Daily Mirror’s list is simply incomplete. The count is unresolved and is not treated here as settled.

A note on the date

The Daily Mirror’s report is datelined and published 12 September, a Saturday. The proceedings it describes — the presentation of the extension resolution to the House and the dispute that followed — are those Hiru News reported as Friday’s sitting. It is best read as the Daily Mirror’s fuller account of Friday 11 September, filed the next day, rather than evidence of a second sitting.

Sources