Nalinda slams Tilvin over election funds claim

There is no unavailability of funds that affects holding the provincial council elections, Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said.

The Minister mentioned this while participating in the press conference held today (14) to inform cabinet decisions.

The government's objective is to hold the provincial council elections quickly, the Minister pointed out.

However, the General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Tilvin Silva, stated recently that there is no possibility of holding the provincial council election due to the twin disasters the country faced.

He added that the money allocated for the election was spent for disaster management.

Commenting further, Minister Jayatissa said:
"The government's expectation is to hold the provincial council elections quickly. We also need provincial councils. For example, if we take the Ministry of Health, when I came, we had 61 institutions belonging to the central government owned by the Ministry of Health. I talked about many provincial council elections before too. Our expectation is to hold the provincial council election speedily. But an election is an occasion where the people's aspirations get expressed.

Then, the people of this country, since many years ago, kept hopes for an election system where the preferential system does not exist, and a member comes to their division.

An election system for provincial councils prepared corresponding to that. Before that, trying for many years for the local government election, an election system devoid of preferences introduced where a member is received for their division. The election held accordingly. Now in 2018 and 2025, because the local government election system was updated, the people of this country can see that there is a member for their division.

Also, that preference fight that existed in previous elections does not exist at all. Moreover, that spending has been reduced to a significant level at the regional level. Additionally, a female representation is guaranteed. So, as an extension of that same election system used and obtained in the local government election, a new election system was proposed for provincial councils. A system devoid of preferences, receiving a divisional member, and female representation guaranteed too. Then, can that request and the people's aspirations be set aside? I cannot completely forget that and make a new election system. So anyway, we handed over those activities to a parliamentary committee, and it meets.

Accordingly, when a system is devoid of preferences, assuring a member for one's division, and confirming female representation presented by that parliamentary committee, the government expects to conduct delimitation activities accordingly and hold the provincial council election as soon as possible."