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Sri Lanka ends accepting nominations for August parliamentary elections

Xinhua, July 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

More than 60 political parties and over 100 independent groups who are contesting Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections next month handed over their nomination papers to the elections department on Monday as the accepting of nominations came to an end.

The main battle for a majority in parliament will be between the current ruling United National Party (UNP) led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) who is yet to name a prime ministerial candidate.

The UNP will be contesting the election as a coalition after it obtained the support of some political parties and civil society group while the UPFA is an alliance which consists of the main Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and members of other political parties who were in government of former President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Rajapakse is also among those who will be contesting for a seat in the 225 member parliament at the elections which will be held on Aug. 17.

Nominations list released by the UPFA shows that while some parliamentarians in the previous government were handed over nominations to contest, some others who held powerful positions in the Rajapakse regime were rejected by the party and therefore will not re-enter the political arena.

UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha told journalists on Monday that former UPFA Parliamentarians Duminda Silva, Sajin de Vass Gunawardene, Mervyn Silva and Sarana Gunawardena were not given nominations for the forthcoming election.

The UNP too said that nominations to contest the forthcoming polls were not handed over to some parliamentarians on a decision made by the party. Endi