The President has decided to seek the opinion of the Supreme Court on holding of Provincial Council (PC) elections at a time when the government and opposition are preparing to face a presidential election.
A senior advisor at the Presidential Secretariat said that the letter requesting to seek the opinion of the Supreme Court on the possibility of holding Provincial Council elections is expected to be sent to the Attorney General's Department either today or tomorrow.
The opinion of the Supreme Court is to be sought to determine the legality of the delimitation report progress as well as to explore whether the President has powers to call for the Provincial Council elections.
The Central Committee (CC) of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) recently agreed unanimously that Provincial Council elections should be held prior to the presidential election and that the President should seek the opinion of the Supreme Court on the matter.
However, United National Front (UNF) parliamentarian and President's Counsel Jayampathi Wickramaratne says that the President does not have the powers to gazette the delimitation committee report for the Provincial Councils that has not received parliamentary approval.
