Elections Dept. officials neck deep:

Unprecedented number vie for legislature

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

An unprecedented number of candidates entered the fray at the April 8, general elections as 7,537 candidates from 24 recognised political parties and 310 independent groups filed their nominations to be elected to the 196 seats in the legislature at district level and 29 seats at National level as the nominations were closed on February (February 26) noon.

"This is the highest number ever to vie for the seats in Sri Lanka election history", an Election Department official told the Sunday Observer.

According to department officials the elections, April 8, would be one of the major one to be handled, as the Election Department had run out of symbols to be given to the independent groups as 310 Independent groups came forward with their nomination lists at district level.

The Department has gazetted a number of fresh symbols to be given to the independent groups contesting the elections on Thursday to face the situation which had arisen due to the unprecedented number of independent groups contesting the elections, especially from the Digamadulla and Batticaloa districts.

A record number of political parties and independent groups are contesting the election from Digamadulla district. According to election officials 17 political parties and 49 independent groups are contesting for the seven seats in the Digamadulla district.

The nominations for the 2010 general elections closed on Friday noon whilst giving one and half hours for the political parties to file their objections to nomination papers filed by respective political parties and independent groups.

Accordingly, 43 nomination lists filed by recognized political parties and 37 nomination lists filed by independent groups have been rejected by respective District Returning Officers after considering objections of the political parties and independent groups.The second highest number of nomination lists have been reported from the Batticaloa district with 17 recognized political parties and 28 independent groups filing their nominations to contest for the five seats in the Batticaloa district.

Despite the entry of large number of the political parties in the fray, the main competition is expected to be the United People's Freedom Alliance led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the United National Party led by the Opposition Leader. The entry of JVP backed Democratic National Alliance led by Sarath Fonseka, would be a factor which would further split the opposition votes among the two political parties in the main opposition.

Due to this situation the two main candidates from the opposition, Ranil Wickremesinghe from the United National Party and Sarath Fonseka now under military custody, from the Democratic National Alliance contesting from the Colombo district would turn into a three corner contest in the Colombo district. The UPFA list in the Colombo district is led by Minister Susil Premjayantha and A.H.M. Fowzie.

In the North and the East the entry of Tamil political parties in different fronts will also split the Tamil votes.

The entry of Tamil National Alliance led by R. Sampanthan, the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal led by Sivnesathurai Chandrakanthan, Tamil United Liberation Front led by V. Anandasangaree and the Eelam Democratic Party led by Minister Douglas Devananda has created confusion among the Tamil voters in the North and the East.

The TNA MPs who had lost their nominations from the TNA are also contesting under Left Liberation Front led by Dr. Vickremabahu Karunaratne.Many veteran politicians from the UPFA have opted to include their nominations in the national list paving way for the younger generation to make their entry into politics through district nomination lists.Among them are Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Ministers D.M.

Jayaratne, Dullas Alahapperuma, Prof. G.L. Peiris, Prof. Tissa Vitharana, D.E.W. Gunasekera, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, Achala Jagoda and Githanjana Gunawardene.The names of former Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara, veteran award winning actress Malini Fonseka and political analyst J.R.P. Sooriyapperuma are also included in the UPFA National List. The names of former Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte, Prof. Vishva Warnapala and Presidential candidate Sarath Kongahage have also been included in the UPFA national list.

The sons of Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Speaker W.J.M.

Lokubandara and Prof. Vishva Warnapala are contesting the election from Kalutara, Badulla and Gamapaha districts respectively under UPFA banner.