Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa told Parliament on Wednesday that the government should take a lesson from the US midterm elections, and challenged it to hold Provincial Council elections to test its own support.
“The people of the USA have rejected the Trump administration because of the suffering they had to undergo. The people of Sri Lanka are also suffering. The government should take note of this situation,” Premadasa said, Daily Mirror reported.
He went on to press the demand that has become his standing challenge to the administration:
“Hold the Provincial Council elections and see the reaction of the people.”
The event he is invoking
The remarks came within hours of the US result becoming clear. Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, taking the House in addition to the Senate and reversing the Republican sweep of 2024. Exit polling in the US identified the economy and the state of democracy as voters’ leading concerns.
Premadasa’s framing maps that result onto domestic conditions: an electorate under economic strain turning on an incumbent at the first opportunity to vote.
A recurring demand, a new frame
The call for Provincial Council elections is not new from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya leader, who has pressed it repeatedly through 2026, arguing that the government is avoiding a national test of opinion. What is new on Wednesday is the comparison he attaches to it — using a foreign election result as evidence for what he expects a domestic one would produce.
Provincial Councils have been without elected members for years, with administration handled by governors and officials.
Not reported
The filing does not carry a government response, state what debate or sitting the remarks were made during, or say whether any date for Provincial Council elections is under consideration. It does not record whether any minister replied in the chamber.
No other verified newsroom had carried the remarks at the time of writing; Daily Mirror is the single source.