Elections Dept ready for parliamentary polls

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

The Elections Department is making arrangements for the smooth conduct of the parliamentary elections to elect 225 Members to the legislature on April 8, after the dissolution of Parliament by President Mahinda Rajapaksa from February 9.

Additional Elections Commissioner W. P. Sumanasiri told the Sunday Observer that the Elections Department has already made preliminary arrangements to receive nominations from recognised political parties and independent groups from February 19-26 mid noon at the District Secretariats and GAs office.

He said at present 65 political parties have registered with the Elections Department.

“Only the independent groups contesting the elections are required to make the Rs. 2,000 deposit for each candidate”, he added.

He said that the only change in the parliamentary elections process is the drop in the number of Members to be elected in the Colombo district from 20 to 19 and the increase of one Member to the Anuradhapura district.

Accordingly the number of MPs to be elected to Parliament from each district will be as follows: Colombo-19, Gampaha-18, Kalutara-10, Kandy-12, Matale-5, Nuwara Eliya-7, Galle-10, Matara-8, Hambantota-7, Jaffna-9, Vanni-6, Batticaloa-5, Digamadulla-7, Trincomalee-4, Kurunegala-15, Puttalam-8, Anuradhapura-9, Polonnaruwa-5, Badulla-8, Moneragala-5, Ratnapura-10,and Kegalle-9.

At the 2004 general elections, the UPFA secured 105 seats including 92 seats district-wise and 13 from the National List, whilst the United National Party secured 82 seats including 11 seats from the National List.The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi or the TNA secured 22 seats including two National List seats.

The Jathika Hela Urumaya secured nine seats including two seats from the National List and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress secured five seats including one seat from the National List.The Up-country People’s Front and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party secured one seat each. The Additional Elections Commissioner said that applications for postal voting will also be received from February 16-22.