Nomination close with 39 candidates vying for presidency

Nominations for the ninth presidential election of Sri Lanka closed  this afternoon setting the stage for a closely contested fight for the presidency.

Thirty-nine candidates handed over nominations at the Election Secretariat in Rajagiriya between 9 a.m. and 11.a.m this morning to be eligible to contest in the 21 September election.

With 39, this is the largest number of candidates to contest a presidential election in Sri Lanka. In 2019 , 35 candidates contested the election.

The nominations were accepted by EC Chairman  R.M.A.L. Rathnayake and its members namely M.A.P.C. Perera, Ameer Faaiz, Ms. Anusuya Shanmuganathan, Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake and theCommissioner General M.K. Saman Sri Rathnayake.

The proceedings began with the EC Chairman informing the candidates of the process for handing over the nomination papers following which the papers were received by the officials.

Three objections were raised  in the half an hour between 11 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. allocated for the purpose, but all were dismissed, EC Chairman Rathnayake said.

Among the first to hand over nominations were businessman Dilith Jayaweera who is contesting from the Mawbima Janatha Party ,Venerable Battaramulla Seelarathna Thera and former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka.

Among the other notable candidates who handed over nominations are President Ranil Wickremesinghe, SJB leader Sajith Premadasa, NPP candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake, SLPP candidate Namal Rajapaksa and former Member of Parliament P. Ariyanethran who is contesting as the common Tamil candidate.

Tight security arrangements were in place around the Election Secretariat with around 1,000 police personnel including members of the Special Task Force deployed on duty. Special traffic arrangements were also put in place for nomination day.

The EC chairman who spoke after the close of nominations said that it is important for all candidates and their supporters, public officials and the media to follow the laws relating to the conduct of a poll.

He said that candidates should not engage in negative campaigning with the intention of tarnishing the image of fellow candidates but use the next five-weeks of campaigning to educate the public on their policies.

He also requested  public officials engaging in election duty to carry out their duties impartially while he requested the media to give balanced coverage to all candidates.