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Local polls to cost Rs. 1 billion
By Shelani Perera
The conduct of the local government elections will cost the Elections Department an estimated one billion rupees – the cost of the November presidential election, an official said.

Elections Department’s Chief Accountant S. Hapuarachchi said there was no difference in the expenditure involved whether it was a Presidential poll or a Local Government poll.

He said the two large segments of expenditure were security and postal service with the department spending Rs. 18 million and Rs. 80 million respectively.

Mr. Hapuarachchi said the department was studying the possibility of cutting down the expenditure by deploying election duty staff in the areas of their residence.

“This way we don’t have to pay heavy travel expenditure which varies according to the distance and the rank,” he said.

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