Airtime allocation for GE:

Deadline for Applications before March 12

Sandasen Marasinghe

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake stated that political parties and leaders of independent groups contesting the Parliamentary Election should forward their applications to SLRC and SLBC on or before March 12 for allocating air time for their parties.

In a media release the Elections Commissioner stated that secretaries of political parties and leaders of the independent groups should send their applications in writing to the Chairmen of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation respectively to reach them on or before March 12.

The Commissioner further stated that according to the provisions of the Parliamentary Elections Act the Elections Secretariat has decided that a party or a group that contests in one district is allotted 30 minutes while and a party or a group that contests in two to 13 districts with 129 candidates is allotted one hour.

If a party or a group contests in 14 districts or more with 130 or more candidates, it is given 90 minutes air time. The air times will be determined by the respective Chairmen of the institution.

The Commissioner said that the times allocated to each party or group may be used on one or more occasions and each occasion should not be less than 15 minutes and not more than 30 minutes.