In a stunning twist of political survival, the National People’s Power government has decided to shelve provincial council elections for the next four years, citing a decline in votes. Critics accuse the regime of running scared, dodging democracy, and punishing citizens with selective crackdowns while avoiding real corruption battles.
The government has officially decided not to hold provincial council elections for the next four years, a move critics say is directly tied to its declining popularity at the ballot box.
United Republican Front leader Champika Ranawaka, addressing a media conference, stated that the National People’s Power administration has no appetite for elections after its disappointing performance in recent local government polls. According to Ranawaka, the mandate secured during the presidential and parliamentary elections has been badly damaged, leaving government MPs openly declaring there will be no provincial polls—or any election at all—for the next four years.
Ranawaka accused President Anura Kumara Dissanayake of running a government obsessed with punishing small-time “two-fifty thieves” while leaving the so-called “mega thieves” untouched. “Anura Kumara won’t solve the rocket issue, won’t confront smugglers, and won’t touch the mega deals. Instead, he arrests petty thieves and calls it curbing corruption,” Ranawaka remarked.
He warned that fear now dominates the state sector, as government crackdowns appear targeted more at optics than substance. Ranawaka argued that genuine reform will only come from citizens and leaders across party lines creating a broader platform for national unity, not from partisan politics.
While he acknowledged the role of the opposition, Ranawaka dismissed the effectiveness of both the United National Party and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, claiming they had languished in opposition for over thirty years without showing real progress. With the current opposition fractured into several factions, Ranawaka suggested that Sri Lanka is at a turning point where a new alliance could emerge in the near future to challenge the ruling party’s grip on power.
