News
Preparations are on once again for upcoming polls, say EC and Govt. Printer
View(s):By Sandun Jayawardana
Funding for the upcoming parliamentary elections is not an issue and the Election Commission (EC) is already engaged in initial preparations for the poll, a senior election official told the Sunday Times.
Funding is only one aspect of the large election process, Election Commissioner General Saman Sri Ratnayake said. Preparations for the handing over of nominations for the elections scheduled for November 14 are already underway, he said.
“It is the Treasury that controls the release of funds. The Treasury will reimburse us after we send the relevant documents related to our expenses. It is not a case of releasing funds to us beforehand,” Mr Ratnayake said, adding that there have been no issues in this regard.
Nominations for parliamentary elections will be accepted from October 4 to October 11, 12 noon.
The EC had earlier stated that public officials who had successfully applied for postal voting at the 2024 presidential election would not have to apply again for the parliamentary elections as their data was already with the EC. However, those whose postal voting applications for the presidential election were rejected could apply for postal voting at the parliamentary election after rectifying the issues that resulted in their applications being rejected.
The Department of Government Printing meanwhile, has already commenced printing some documents related to the election. They include forms required by the EC for election related work, envelopes, journals and instruction manuals, Government Printer Gangani Liyanage told the Sunday Times. She added that the EC has already booked space for about 20 gazettes that it intends to print in the coming days.
There were more than 700, 000 postal voters at the presidential election. The EC estimates that this may go up to about 1 million at the parliamentary elections. Since postal voting forms must be sent to the relevant government institutions before the nomination process begins, printing of those postal voting forms are already underway, Ms Liyanage added.
The EC this week also released information on seat allocations for the 2024 parliamentary election. Accordingly, the number of MPs to be elected from each electoral district is as follows: Colombo – 18, Gampaha – 19, Kalutara – 14, Kandy – 12, Matale – 5, Nuwara Eliya – 8, Galle – 9, Matara – 7, Hambantota – 7, Jaffna – 6, Vanni – 6, Batticaloa – 5, Digamadulla – 7, Trincomalee – 4, Kurunegala – 15, Puttalam – 8, Anuradhapura – 9, Polonnaruwa – 5, Badulla – 9, Monaragala – 6, Ratnapura – 11 and Kegalle – 9.
The EC further informed the public that any voter who has a justifiable fear that they will not be able to cast their vote at the polling booth allocated to them can apply to vote at a different polling booth. Such persons must submit their application within seven days of the accepting of nominations, that is, before October 1, to either the EC head office in Rajagiriya or to the election office in their respective district.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!