Nominations closed for eastern Sri Lanka elections

The nominations to contest Sri Lanka's Eastern Provincial Council election was closed on Thursday with the voting to take place on May 10, elections officials said.

Nominations were accepted from registered political parties and independent groups to contest local councils at the three different districts in the province.

Parties and groups handed in their nominations at the Election Department offices in the Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee districts and the handing over period passed without any incident, defense officials said.

Some 12 political parties had handed over nominations for the Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts while 11 political parties had handed over for the Ampara district, officials said.

They said 15, 19 and 22 independent groups respectively are vying in the three districts.

Over 980,000 voters are eligible to vote, officials said.

Several applications from both political parties and independent groups were rejected in the three districts.

The Eastern Provincial Council election on May 10 will be the first such since November 1988.

The east was then part of the north and east provincial council until the two provinces came to be de-merged in late 2006 through a court order.

The two provinces came to be merged as a result of the India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord of July 1987.

Source: Xinhua