PC Polls on August 23

Nominations close; All major parties in the fray:

Rasika SOMARATHNA

COLOMBO: The Elections Department immediately after the closure of nominations yesterday announced that the provincial council elections for both Sabaragamuwa and North Central would take place on Saturday, August 23.

At the end of nominations a total number of 690 candidates from North Central and 1,008 from Sabaragamuwa have joined the fray to compete for 31 and 42 slots in the two councils respectively.

According to election authorities the nominee lists of three political parties and four independent groups have been rejected due to anomalies.

The Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) nomination list for the Kegalle district has been rejected along with one other independent group.

In the Ratnapura district two independent group lists too have been rejected.

In addition the Ruhunu Janatha Party nominations for Polonnaruwa has been rejected with the nominations of Eksath Lanka Maha Sabha and another independent group for Anuradhapura suffering the same fate.

Key political parties such as the UPFA, UNP and JVP have given nominations for all four districts.

In addition the United National Alliance (UNA), Left Front, National Development Front (NDF) and United Socialist Party (USP) too have given nominations for all four districts.

Meanwhile key Government ally the Ceylon Workers Congress which had one seat in the former Sabaragamuwa PC has given nominations for both districts in Sabaragamuwa as a separate political party but is expected to support the UPFA in case of securing slots at the polls, sources said.

According to elections authorities 441 candidates have joined the fray from 11 political parties and 10 independent groups in the Kegalle district which has 605,621 eligible voters and would appoint 18 candidates to the Sabaragamuwa PC.

The UPFA candidate list in the Kegalle is being led by former chief Minister for Sabaragamuawa Mahipala Herath with Jayathilaka Podinilame leading the UNP nominees.

According to election Authorities in the Ratnapura district which comes under Sabaragamuwa province 12 political parties and nine independent groups have handed over nominations with a total of 567 candidates in the fray for 24 slots.

In the Anuradhapura district which houses 569,398 voters 456 candidates from 12 political parties and seven independent groups handed over nominations.

The UPFA in Anuradhapura is led by former North Central CM, Berty Premalal Dissanayake with former Army Chief of Staff Major General (retd.) Janaka Perera leading the UNP camp.

In addition the JVP CM nominee former MP Wasantha Samarasinghe is tipped to lead their team.