Govt. readies for Northern poll

27 April 2013 04:17 am

Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the largest ally of the ruling coalition, will call for applications from prospective candidates soon to contest the elections for the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) in September, party officials said yesterday.    

The SLFP-led alliance will handpick 19 candidates for the Jaffna district, eight for the Mannar district, and eight for the Mullaitivu district, nine for the Vavuniya district and seven for the Kilinochchi district.

SLFP National Organiser and Minister Basil Rajapaksa said his party would put up a newspaper advertisement soon calling for applications from those willing to contest the election.  

“We will conduct the election to the NCP for sure. We need to select candidates for it,” he said.

The government constitutes the NPC for the first time. Earlier, there was a single provincial council for the North and East but this came to an end when the East was de-merged from the North on a court order.  

The NCP will comprise 38 members including two bonus seats.  There will be 16 elected from Jaffna, five from Mannar, six from Vavuniya, five from Mullaitivu and four from Kilinochchi.  The number of seats has been determined according to the population in the North based on the latest census, and the geographical size.

According to the Provincial Council Election Act, there should be presidential order to the Elections Commissioner to conduct an election for the first time    to a provincial council. (Kelum Bandara )