Former cabinet minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne called on opposition parties to contest the long-delayed Provincial Council (PC) elections on combined candidate lists, declaring that any party refusing to join would be regarded as a “traitor”, The Island reported.

Speaking at Hotel Nippon on Wednesday on behalf of the People’s United Opposition — a grouping operating from former president Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Flower Road office — Dr Senaratne said the bloc would field unified lists rather than negotiate formal alliances. “There is no need for alliances,” he said, arguing that combined lists could deliver the opposition’s objectives at the PC vote.

He was flanked by Convenor Prof. G.L. Peiris, MP M.A. Sumanthiran, and United National Party stalwart Wajira Abeywardena. The Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) was represented by its acting Secretary General, a former lawmaker. The main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) sent no representatives — a notable absence given Wednesday’s framing as an opposition-wide push.

Dr Senaratne, who represents the UNP, alleged there was no consensus inside the ruling coalition over the polls. He noted that JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva had told supporters in Jaffna over the weekend that PC elections could not be held this year because of financial constraints and legal hurdles, while NPP General Secretary Dr Nihal Abeysinghe had taken a different position. With the NPP commanding 159 seats, Dr Senaratne said the government could comfortably pass enabling legislation under Proportional Representation.

Prof. Peiris, opening the briefing, said the NPP government had deprived voters of their democratic rights by allowing the PC polls to remain on hold. The councils have not been elected since 2014.

The Hotel Nippon event followed Tuesday’s PAFFREL-organised meeting at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agricultural Training and Research Institute, at which 42 political parties and civil-society groups — with one exception — endorsed a joint statement seeking the polls under the system that existed before the 2017 amendment, with 25 percent voluntary representation for women and youth. Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanikkam, who attended that meeting alongside Mano Ganesan and Nizam Kariapper, has tabled a private member’s bill to enable the polls under the earlier framework.