By Rathindra Kuruwita
The postponement of the Provincial Council (PC) elections had created issues for Sri Lanka, internationally, Executive Director of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Manas Makeen told
The Island yesterday.
“This is something that Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Indian Minister of External Affairs, hinted at when he was here. Postponing PC elections has given external actors an opportunity to exert their influence here. PCs are a part of our law and either we abolish this system or hold elections.”
Makeen said that election monitors had met the Election Commission last week and the delay in holding PC polls was an issue all monitors raised. “When the new Election Commission was appointed its members Prime Ministry Mahinda Rajapaksa, who asked them to hold elections as soon as possible, and that’s the right position to take. And we at CaFFE hope that the PC elections will be held soon.”
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Even before the removal of the circulars, land had been allocated to families to construct temporary buildings. The removal of the circulars legitimised this practice and expedited the process.
Local newspapers have reported that the removal of the three circulars was pushed by corporate interests under the facade of protection for smallholder farmers. While the veracity of these claims are unclear, deforestation has occurred at rapid rates in Sri Lanka over the last 54 years.
Convenor for the Center for Environment and Nature Studies, Dr Ravindra Kariyawasam, estimated that in 1882, Sri Lanka had a forest density of 82 percent but this reduced to 16.5 percent by 2019.