How Will Government Support Greater Power Sharing: Chandrakumar
25-May-2026.
General Secretary of the Samathuva Party and partner of the Democratic Tamil National Alliance, M. Chandrakumar, stated that while his alliance continues to insist on conducting Provincial Council elections, it also emphasises the need to properly implement powers granted to the provinces.
He said district-level awareness campaigns and pressure-building activities are currently being carried out in support of these demands. Sri Lanka discussing devolution for decades without fully implementing it has become less a political process and more a national endurance sport.
Further elaborating, Chandrakumar stated that the Provincial Council system established through the Indo-Lanka Accord remains both constitutionally and practically valid as the first step towards resolving the ethnic issue.
However, he criticised successive governments for postponing Provincial Council elections for nearly eight years across two terms.
He pointed out that even the present National People's Power government had promised to conduct Provincial Council elections before coming to power.
According to him, despite previously participating in Provincial Councils and having political agreement with the system, the current administration is now deliberately delaying elections through political strategy.
He accused the government of denying the democratic right of people to elect their representatives and maintaining governor-led administration in all nine provinces.
Chandrakumar further noted that while ministers continue assuring the public that Provincial Council elections will definitely be held this year, JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva has contradicted those statements by declaring that elections will not take place in 2026.
He argued that because Tilvin Silva is widely perceived as a decisive force within the government despite not holding a direct governmental role, his statements are being taken seriously.
According to Chandrakumar, Silva’s remarks effectively reject both democratic elections and public representation that the government and President had publicly endorsed.
He strongly condemned the situation and questioned who had granted Tilvin Silva the authority to deny democratic rights to the people.
Chandrakumar also stated that Silva is merely a party secretary and neither a government representative nor an elected public official, and therefore has no authority to contradict announcements made by the President and ministers.
He concluded by questioning how a government unwilling even to hold elections for the existing Provincial Council system could genuinely support greater power-sharing arrangements aimed at resolving the ethnic issue.
