Provincial council poll by January 2019?

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The official term of the Northern Provincial Council ends at midnight today (October 24). As of today, the official term for six provincial councils have come to an end, and election monitoring groups have criticized the government for the delay in holding provincial council elections. Its been nearly one year since the official term of the Sabaragamuwa, Eastern and North Central provincial councils ended. The official term of the Wayamba and Central provincial councils came to an end this month. While the official term of the Western, Southern and Uva provincial councils, will end during the first quarter of next year. The report compiled by the delimitation committee to hold the Provincial Council Elections under the new system was defeated recently in parliament. The report is currently under review by the delimitation review committee, headed by the prime minister. The official term of the review committee will come to an end on the 28th of October 2018, while the prime minister has requested speaker Karu Jayasuriya to extend the committee's official term. Secretary of the Delimitation Committee, Saman Sri Ratnayake said that Karu Jayasuriya appointed a five-member review committee, which was required to submit a report to the President, within a period of two months. He added that it is a rule in the constitution to handover the report in two months and that by the end of this month the report will be handed over to the president, and will be gazetted. "In this case, the provincial council elections can be held by the end of January 2019" added the Secretary of the delimitation committee. Meanwhile, State Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Sriyani Wijewickrama stated that a meeting headed by the President was held recently, to discuss matters pertaining to the upcoming elections. The Prime Minister and several parliamentarians attended the meeting. Addressing the meeting Chairman of the Elections Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya had said that the administration of six provincial councils comes under the purview of honourable governers and Government Officials. He added that the elections commission believes that a government controlled under single authority is not second to an authoritarian regime and that all political parties should help create a legal framework, in which provincial council elections could be held soon.