It has 12 members elected using the open list proportional representation system.
[2] Trincomalee is one of the largest cities in Sri Lanka without municipality status.
Cities and towns with much lower population than Trincomalee, such as Hambantota (home of President Mahinda Rajapaksa) and Akkaraipattu (home of Local Government Minister A. L. M. Athaullah), have been promoted to Municipal Council in 2011 but Trincomalee has been overlooked.
[4] Aljazeera, the Asiafoundation and the Daily Mirror attribute this to civil war;[5][6] Reuters and the US State Department attribute this to calls for election boycotts by the LTTE (enforced with brutal reprisals for non-compliance)[7][8] and the Tamilnet attribute it to The Sri Lankan government's suspension of all local government in the north and east of the country in 1983 using Emergency Regulations.
[9] Trincomalee was administered by special commissioners until 1994 when local elections were held.