Abstract:
In 2008, provincial council elections were held in the Eastern Province
amid high hopes that they would bring about positive change for Eastern people who
have suffered long periods of conflict, weak governance and poverty. The prime
objective of this study is to critically analysis the democratization and good governance
process in the Eastern Province. Further this research endowers to identify the
challenges which are faced by democratic institutions in the East Sri Lanka. This study is
critical nature in which has been used primary and secondary data. The primary data has
been collected through question ire, key informants interviews and focus group
discussion. Three persons have been interviewed as key informants and three focuses
groups have been discussed. The Secondary data has been collected from books, official
documents, reports, journals and news paper articles. The major findings of this study is
that the faith in the democratic process among ordinary people has begun to wane and
government support to democratisation processes has tended to focus most heavily on
the central government levels, rather than on building the relationship between the
eastern people and the local leaders they come into the most day-to-day contact with
(whether they are democratically elected or not). Further, in the absence of well
functioning state institutions at the local level, other mechanisms of holding leaders to
account have evolved that have so far not been impacted by democratisation.
