Unprecedented hesitancy in contesting witnessed

By Sujith Hevajulige

Despite there having been a huge scramble among members of various political parties for the candidacies for the Local Government elections in the past, an unprecedented reluctance in contesting has been witnessed this time, according to political party sources.  
Sources said that owing to this lack of enthusiasm on the part of politicians at village level, many political parties had to struggle until the eleventh hour to fill their nomination papers for elections for some of the 336 local councils scheduled to be held May 6.  
It is learnt that some political parties have decided against contesting for some local government bodies after unsuccessfully hunting for candidates.  
It is also revealed that the last minute rush in preparing nomination papers due to lack of enthusiasm has resulted in mistakes in those papers which in turn had led to the rejection of them.  
Nearly 425 nomination papers had been rejected in this year’s local government elections, according to Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake.  
The acceptance of nominations for 336 local government institutions which commenced on 17 March concluded at 12.00 noon on March 20. “A total of 2,900 groups submitted nominations for 336 local government bodies. Of these, around 2,260 groups were nominated by political parties,” Ratnayake said.  
According to the Election Commission, a total of 17,296,330 voters have qualified to vote in this year’s Local Council polls.