DailyMirror
The UPFA had handed over nominations for all 22 electoral districts by yesterday, SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena said. Nominations for the Parliamentary Elections set for April 8 will be concluded at 1.00 pm today.
A total of 140,88,500 voters are set to elect 196 Members of Parliament at election and 29 are to be elected from the national list for the seventh parliament of Sri Lanka.
Political parties are required to submit their national lists today to the Elections Commissioner Dayanada Dissanayaka. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake and Minister Dullas Alahapperuma are also on the National List of the UPFA Eighteen political parties and 37
Independent groups had handed over nomination papers by last afternoon. In addition, 229 independent groups had placed deposits –Rs. 2,000 each for every candidate – by last afternoon, Election Secretariat sources said.
The election campaign of the UPFA for the April 8 Parliamentary polls will kick off on February 27 with religious observances in Anuradhapura attended by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In the meantime, the UNP- led alliance handed over nominations for Galle, Puttalam and Matara districts yesterday.
Nominations for other districts would be handed over today, the party said.
However, the main opposition yesterday finalized the nomination lists of Batticaloa and Digamadulla districts after a tussle with the SLMC for slots.
According to informed sources the tussle had become serious last morning with UNP’s Digamadulla Organizer Daya Gamage suggesting to field candidates separately from both parties.
The tussle started as SLMC asking for 5 slots while the UNP wanted six slots. However after intensive discussions it was decided that the SLMC would get only four slots and UNP six slots.
UNP candidates include members of Eastern Provincial Council Daya Gamage, Chandradasa Galappthi, and Former Minister M. M. Musthpha who crossed over from the UPFA to support common opposition candidate General (retired) Sarath Fonseka during the presidential election.
Among the candidates fielded by the SLMC for Digamadulla includes former MP Faizal Cassim.
Problems cropped up in Batticaloa District were also resolved last after noon.
Source said SLMC had got four slots in the district while UNP had got three while Democratic Peopls’s Front will get one slot.
UNP candidates include members of the Eastern provincial A Sasitharan and A. Malsamani. Arumugan Gajan would be the Tamil Candidate fielded by the UNP, they said.
According to sources the lists in the two districts have been finalized as all the candidates have placed their signatures last afternoon. The party would hand over nominations for the two districts today.
The Democratic People’s Front led by former MP Mano Ganeshan said that they sorted out all the problems with the UNF yesterday with regard to the allocation of slots.
Mr. Ganeshan said that he signed the nomination paper to be handed over tomorrow to contest the poll from Kandy. There would be two candidates representing his party from Colombo, one each from Nuwara-Eliya, Wanni and Batticaloa.ants available to cast their votes from abroad where they work.