People's representatives for LG bodies in North

by P. Krishnaswamy

Thirty-one Local Government bodies in the Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya districts, where elections were not held for over two decades due to LTTE terrorism, will function with representatives elected by the public from next year.

Elections are scheduled to be held before March 2011, Additional Secretary to the Local Government and Provincial Councils Ministry D. P. Hettiarachchi told the Sunday Observer.

These Local Government bodies had been under the administration of the District Secretariats and provincial authorities due to the conflict situation, he said.

Elections for 330 Local Government bodies - 18 Municipal Councils (MCs), 42 Urban Councils (UCs) and 270 Pradeshiya Sabhas (PSs) - including those in the Northern Province will be held under the electoral reforms evolved by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms, headed by Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, which was gazetted on October 4.

Seventy percent of the representatives will be elected under the first-past-the-post system while the remaining thirty percent will be elected under the proportional representation system. Committees have also been appointed for delimitation of boundaries of existing Local Government bodies.

Almost 90 percent of the Local Government bodies functioning in the South are controlled by the UPFA, Hettiarachchi said.

In coordination with the Provincial Councils, the Ministry has been conducting performance improvement and evaluation of performance management competitions among the Local Government bodies since 1980 using the Performance Enhancement and Consolidation Tool (PERFECT). Last year, the Matara MC, Kuliyapitiya UC and Wariyapola PS were selected as the best, he said.

Elections to the Jaffna MC and the Vavuniya UC held last year were won by the UPFA-constituent EPDP, led by Minister Douglas Devananda, and the TNA. The EPDP also won the Pudukudiyiruppu Pradeshiya Sabha uncontested as the nominations of the UNP and the TNA were rejected.

Assistant Commissioner of Elections A. S. Karunanidhi, who is in-charge of the special elections office functioning at Kilinochchi, said that the 2009 electoral registers for the Northern Province have already been completed and certified by the Elections Commissioner.

The electoral registers include the names of all voters, including those who have been resettled and the small numbers still in welfare centres.