COLOMBO – Sri Lanka will call for fresh nominations for the overdue local government elections, Cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.
Although every eligible citizen who has completed 18 years and included their name in the electoral register should be able to vote, only voters registered until January 2023 are eligible to vote at the local government election, as the nominations for that election have been called and concluded, he pointed out.
“More than 900,000 newly included voters in the electoral list revised in the year 2024 will be deprived of their right to vote, or be nominated at the local government elections,” Gunawardena told reporters.
The Local Government Elections (Amendment) Act No. 30 of 2023, states that a 25% youth representation should be allowed in the nominations submitted for local government elections, Gunawardena said.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved a proposal to instruct the Legal Draftsman to formulate a draft bill on local government elections (special provisions), in consultation with the Election Commission, to grant the Commission the necessary powers to call nominations once again for conducting local government-elections based on the electoral register of 2024.
Many of those who received nominations from a party to contest in the postponed local government election are no longer in the same party.
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