Opposition political parties in Sri Lanka to challenge the tabled local government election bills in courts

Several opposition political parties in Sri Lanka including the major Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have opposed the bills that have been presented to the parliament to amend the existing laws on local government elections.

The minor parties have decided to challenge the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill in court.
TNA parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran has told the local media that the party would oppose and challenge the bill in court claiming the amendments would create a two party system in the country.
Meanwhile the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Democratic People's Front (DPF) have also opposed the bill charging the amendments would prevent the democratic representation and be harmful to the minority parties.
Sri Lanka's major opposition United National Party has expressed consent to some of the amendments but they have proposed other amendments as well, according to government sources.
The government says it has observed that there is a wide social consensus for the present system to be changed and to revert back to the ward system in view of the shortcomings in the existing system.
The two bills, Local Authorities (Special Provisions) Bill and the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill presented in parliament last week introduce a new system to elect members to local government bodies through the amendments to the Local Authorities Elections Ordinance.
Under the proposed amendments two-thirds of the members are to be elected on the first-past-the-post system and one-third under the PR system.
The bills will also amend the Municipal Councils Ordinance, the Urban Councils Ordinance, and the Pradeshiya Sabha Act.
According to government sources the local government election would be held early next year.