The Government has decided to implement the All Party Representative Committee proposal to appoint a High level Advisory committee to administer the Northern Provincial Council, following the May 10 Elections to the Eastern Provincial Council, Presidential Secretariat sources said yesterday.

Senior Advisor to the President Basil Rajapaksa, MP, told The Island that whilst the Government restored democracy to the people of the Eastern Province by holding elections, it had decided to implement the APRC proposal to set up an advisory committee for the Northern PC.

He said the Advisory committee would function until such time as the Security Forces liberate the entire Northern Province from the clutches of the LTTE, so that elections to Local government bodies and the Provincial Council could be conducted and democracy fully restored in the North.

Incidentally the first and the last elections to the formerly merged Northeast Province was held almost 20 years ago, on November 19, 1988 .Meanwhile all political parties contesting the May 10 Eastern PC polls have begun to accelerate their campaigns after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations.United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) General Secretary and Minister Susil Premajayanth said yesterday that the Government was happy that for the very first time after several decades it could unite the formerly divided Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala communities in the Eastern Province and get all parties to contest under the banner of the UPFA and the Betel symbol.The theme of the UPFA campaign would be "Vote for National unity and development of the Eastern Province".

He said Leader of the House Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva would lead the campaign in the Digamadulla District, while W. D. J. Seneviratne would head the campaign in the Trincomalee District and he (Premajayantha) would lead the campaign in the Batticaloa district.It was decided to hold meetings at village level, he said. Meanwhile, the Additional Commissioner of Elections (Provincial and local) W. P. Sumanasiri said that polling cards would be handed over to the Postal Authorities on April 21, to ensure that all the polling cards are delivered to the voters by May 3.He said on April 18 the Postal Voting Packets containing 4,427 postal votes for the Batticaloa district,9,468 for the Digamadulla district and 8,517 for the Trincomalee district would be delivered to the respective certifying officers for marking on the April 28 and 29.

(Courtesy : The Island)