The defeat of the Colombo Municipal Council’s budget does not threaten the survival of the ruling administration for at least two years under Sri Lanka’s local government law, electoral reform analyst Manjula Gajanayake said following the vote.
Gajanayake, executive director of the Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies, said elected heads of local authorities are legally protected from removal for a minimum of two years, regardless of budget defeats.
“There is no legal mechanism to dissolve a municipal council or remove its leadership within the first two years simply because a budget is defeated,” he said, stressing that local councils operate under a different framework from Parliament.
The ruling National People’s Power (NPP) lost the budget vote at the Colombo Municipal Council on Dec. 22 after a joint opposition bloc voted against the financial estimates.
Under the Local Authorities (Special Provisions) Act No. 21 of 2012, a council whose budget is defeated is allowed to re-present the budget within two weeks, with or without amendments. If the revised budget is also rejected, the mayor is legally empowered to proceed with the original financial estimates using executive authority.
Gajanayake said this legal structure guarantees continuity of governance for a full two-year period, preventing political manoeuvring from triggering abrupt changes in control.
“Even repeated budget defeats do not remove the administration during this two-year window,” he said. “The law was specifically amended to prevent councils from being toppled through short-term political bargaining.”
He added that an elected mayor or chairperson can only be removed through resignation, death, expulsion following a formal inquiry into misconduct initiated through the governor, or party disciplinary action — not through budget votes in first two years.
While the budget defeat has no immediate administrative or legal impact, Gajanayake said it is politically significant and could weaken the ruling party’s ability to govern effectively within the council.
“The consequence is political pressure, not institutional collapse,” he said. (Newswire)
