Government ready to hold Local Government polls Soon
The much-awaited gazette notification calling nominations for the Local Government (LG) polls will be issued yesterday, 4th January, and nominations will be accepted at the District level from January 18 to 12 noon on January 21st, announced this morning by the Election Commission Chairman.
Accordingly, the LG polls would be held before March 15 making way to establish 340 LG bodies by March 19, told Election Commissioner Nimal G. Punchihewa.
The total number of registered voters eligible to vote in the electoral register of 2022 is 166, 92, 398. The District Secretaries acting as District Returning Officers (DROs) will issue the gazette at 25 districts giving the date to accept nominations tomorrow.
“We have instructed the District Secretaries who will act as DROs to issue the gazette notification marking the date and venues to accept nominations when the EC informed them.
Dismissing speculations that the LG polls will cost Rs. 10 billion or more, Mr. Punchihewa said the EC would make all efforts to restrict the cost under Rs. 8 billion and added that the number of election officials would be less than 200,000.
Candidates from political parties and independent groups are vying for 8,711 slots in 340 LG bodies except for the Elpitiya PS in Southern. The LG polls will be held 60% under the first past the post system and 40% under the Proportional Representation (PR) system, Mr. Punchihewa added.
The political parties and independent groups must include 25% women in the nomination list and also give the opportunity for 30% representation to the youth but it is not compulsory as the relevant law has not been passed as yet.
However, an official date for the election has yet to be announced and until this week there was uncertainty about whether polls would take place at all. In fact, the uncertainty persists, particularly in the wake of a writ petition filed before the Supreme Court by a retired military official seeking an order suspending the local government elections citing Sri Lanka’s ongoing currency crisis, the worst in decades.
Sri Lanka’s local government elections scheduled for 2023 have been mired in controversy with opposition parties accusing the government of delaying the polls because the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) fears an embarrassing defeat.
Meanwhile, Sources indicated that the activists who created a strong struggle (Aragalaya) to oust Sri Lanka’s former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa from power in 2022 have also decided to join the political arena and contest this year’s LG polls.
The last LG polls were held in February 2018. Former Provincial Council Minister Roshan Ranasinghe put off LG polls by one year claiming the threat posed by covid-19.
