President aims to rebuild country despite election

COLOMBO: President Ranil Wickremesinghe has informed the United National Party (UNP) that he would not be involved in any activities related to the upcoming local government election.

Communicating his decision to the UNP, President Wickremesinghe noted that he was given a mandate not to engage in elections, but to rebuild the country and ride out the crisis situation within two years.

He stressed that he is not prepared to act in contravention of this mandate.

The Election Commission of Sri Lanka says that applications for postal voting at the 2023 Local Government (LG) elections will be accepted from eligible voters from January 05 to midnight on Jan. 23

The election body earlier announced that nominations for the LG polls would be accepted from Jan. 18 to 12 noon on Jan. 21.

Accepting election deposits of the candidates will begin on January 04 and continue until 12 noon on Jan. 20 (except on Poya Day which falls on Jan. 06 and Sundays on Jan. 08 and 15), according to a press release by the Election Commission.

However, out of the 341 local government bodies, nominations are not called from the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha, as its five-year tenure is yet to expire.