No LG election postponement

7 February 2011 05:46 am

No decision has been made to postpone local government elections despite requests by certain members of political parties to postpone the elections due to the prevailing flood situation, the Elections Department said today.

A senior department official said that local government elections will still be held on March 17 as planned. “The Elections Commissioner intends to go ahead with the local government elections on the set date as planned. So far no changes have been made and it is unlikely that any changes will be made to the date of the elections,” he said.  

The Eastern, Central, Uva, North Central Province have been vastly affected by floods.
In early January the TNA and SLMC requested the Elections department to postpone the local government election process due to severe floods but no changes were made.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) General Secretary, Marvi Senadhiraja said recently that local government election contestants were unable to go into the flood affected areas for campaigning due to the prevailing flood situation and the lack of food and sanitation.

“How can we go to these people and ask them to fill up a form when they are struggling to survive in these dire conditions,” he said. (Olindhi Jayasundere)