[2] On 2 and 8 September 1988 President Jayewardene issued proclamations enabling the Northern and Eastern provinces to be one administrative unit administered by one elected Council.

However, the referendum was never held and successive Sri Lankan presidents have issued proclamations annually extending the life of the "temporary" entity.

[2] On 16 October 2006 the Supreme Court ruled that the proclamations issued by President Jayewardene were null and void and had no legal effect.

However, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), which at that time occupied the province, rigged the elections in the north so that the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF), two Indian backed paramilitary groups, won all of the 36 seats in the north uncontested.

On 10 December 1988 Annamalai Varadaraja Perumal, a former lecturer at the Jaffna University Economics Department, of the EPRLF became the first Chief Minister of the North Eastern Provincial Council.

[8] On 1 March 1990, just as the IPKF were preparing to withdraw from Sri Lanka, Perumal moved a motion in the North-East Provincial Council declaring an independent Eelam.