Over 70,000 Police deployed ahead of LG polls tomorrow

Colombo, May 5 (Daily Mirror) - More than 70,000 police personnel have been deployed across Sri Lanka to ensure a safe, fair, and orderly voting process during the Local Government (LG) elections scheduled for tomorrow.

All campaign-related activities, including rallies and public speeches, concluded at midnight on Saturday, in line with the election silence period mandated by the Election Commission (EC).

Police said that 46 candidates contesting the 2025 LG elections have been arrested for violating election laws between March 3 and April 30.

In addition, 199 supporters of various political parties were also taken into custody during the same period.

Between 6:00 a.m. on Saturday (May 3) and 6:00 a.m. yesterday (May 4), police received 25 complaints related to election law violations.

These incidents led to the arrest of three candidates and nine political party supporters.

With these latest arrests, the total number of individuals taken into custody in connection with the election has risen to 245.

According to the Election Commission, over 72,000 candidates are contesting the election. Initially planned for 4,917 electoral divisions, voting will now take place in 4,877 divisions following administrative adjustments and the exclusion of certain local authorities, including the Kalmunai Municipal Council and the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha, due to legal and procedural issues.

The election will fill positions in 339 local authorities across the country: 28 Municipal Councils (including Colombo, Kandy, Galle and Jaffna), 36 Urban Councils, and 275 Pradeshiya Sabhas.

A total of 17,296,330 citizens are eligible to vote on May 6, including more than 155,000 first-time voters who have reached the age of 18 since the last Local Government elections in 2018.