Committee to make recommendations to Minister:

National Delimitation Committee to demarcate wards in LG areas

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister A.L.M. Athaullah will appoint a National Delimitation Committee to demarcate wards in local authority areas to implement the new Local Government elections procedure, Local Government and Provincial Councils Secretary R.A.A.K. Ranawaka told the Sunday Observer.

The Minister will appoint a National Delimitation Committee this month after inviting representations from all ethnicities to facilitate it”, the Secretary said.

According to the amended Local Government Elections Ordinance, which was passed unanimously in Parliament on Wednesday along with the Local Authorities (Special Provisions) Bill, the National Delimitation Committee consisting of five persons should be appointed by the Minister to facilitate the procedure.

The mandate of the committee is to make recommendations to the Minister to divide each local authority area into wards. The National Delimitation Committee will consider the ethnic composition ratio and the need to ensure equal representation for each ethnicity, the geographical area and the population of the local authority, the density of such population and the level of economic development.

The National Delimitation Committee will be supported by District Delimitation Committees headed by the District Secretary of each district.

The District Delimitation Committee will comprise representatives from the Department of Elections, Provincial Ministry of Local Government in the districts, Survey General’s Department, Department of Census and Statistics and a public officer nominated by the Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils.

According to the new local authorities elections procedure, one member will be elected to each ward under the local authority areas.

“The number of wards under each local authority area and their names will be decided on by the National Delimitation Committee and the number of Councillors to be elected for each local authority area will be decided on after considering the committee’s recommendations”, the Secretary said.

Apart from electing 70 percent of the Councillors for wards under the first-past-the-post-system, another 30 percent of Councillors will be elected under the proportional representation system to enable the defeated political parties and independent groups to have their representatives in the local authorities.

“We are taking steps to complete this process of demarcating wards to hold the next local government elections under the new system”, Ranawake said.