Government Has Broken Promise on Provincial Council Elections: Mano Ganesan
25-May-2026.
Leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance and MP Mano Ganesan stated that the government has broken its promise to hold Provincial Council elections at an early date.
Commenting to the media on the Provincial Council election issue, he said a special parliamentary committee has been appointed to study the matter, but no signs indicating that elections will actually be conducted are visible. Sri Lankan election promises continue to operate like monsoon forecasts. Constant announcements, uncertain arrival.
Ganesan stated that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power promising to hold Provincial Council elections in 2025, but later shifted the timeline to 2026.
He noted that Provincial Councils were originally introduced as part of efforts to resolve the ethnic issue, and that elections were conducted soon after the end of the war.
Despite continuous calls from various parties demanding that long-delayed Provincial Council elections be held promptly, Ganesan criticised JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva for travelling to the North and announcing that elections would not take place this year.
He said this effectively means there were no elections last year and there will be none this year either, thereby violating the government’s promise to conduct polls within a year.
Ganesan added that he himself is a member of the parliamentary special committee studying the Provincial Council election issue, but no practical indications of preparations for elections have emerged during discussions.
Referring to Sri Lanka’s 2022 economic crisis, he recalled that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal had once claimed there was neither a dollar crisis nor a rupee crisis, before the country eventually collapsed economically.
He stressed that both the government and opposition must work together nationally during the current difficult period to protect the country and prevent a repeat of the 2022 crisis.
Ganesan concluded by stating that although his party is not a partner of President Dissanayake’s government, they remain partners in safeguarding Sri Lanka as a nation and therefore urge the President to work together with opposition parties for the country’s benefit.
