The Elections Commissioner, Mahinda Deshapriya claimed that no foreign observers will be in Sri Lanka to monitor the upcoming Provincial Council elections.
Speaking at a press conference held today (January 29) in Colombo, he stated that the elections will be held on a Saturday and that close to six million people will be eligible to vote.
He also said that no candidate’s nomination will be rejected unless there was an inadequacy in their applications.
Deshapriya claimed that around Rs.1200 million would be spent for the elections while most of the expenditure would be on electricity costs. He added that Colombo would have around 1400 voting centres while Gamapaha will have 1315, Kalutara 615, Galle 704, Hambantota 405 and Matara 440.
Each voting center will have between 7 and 17 officials while around a total of 55,000 officials are set to be stationed at voting centers.
He further advised voters to present either their identity cards or birth certificates at the polling stations as well as not to cast their votes using false names. He added that voting papers would be cast into transparent boxes similar to those used in the last election.
