11 October 2019 06:31 am
A total of 53,384 voters in Elpitiya will use their franchise to elect 28 members to the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Saba at 47 polling stations today from 7.00 am to 4.30 pm.
Five political parties, the UNP, SLPP, SLFP, JVP and Democratic United National Front are in the fray to elect 17 members directly and 11 others under the PR system from among 155 candidates.
Galle Assistant Elections Commissioner K.U. Chandralal said the counting of votes would be done at the 47 polling centres and the results could be known by early Saturday morning.
Postal voting took place on September 30. Those who failed to cast their postal votes on that day were given another opportunity on October 4.
The Elpitiya PS elections had been delayed since 2018 after the Supreme Court (SC) issued an interim injunction preventing the poll when the Democratic United National Front petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the refusal of its nomination papers by the Assistant Elections Commissioner of Galle.
After a trial, the Supreme Court on August 30 this year ruled that quashing the nominations was against the election law. It also ordered the National Election Commission (NEC) to hold the election for the Elpitiya PS without delay. Accordingly, the NEC issued a gazette notification on Sept. 3, announcing that the Elpitiya PS elections would be held on October 11. (Sandun A Jayasekera)