PRESIDENTIAL POLL ON JANUARY 26 NOMINATIONS DECEMBER 17
By Kelum Bandara
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake yesterday fixed December 17 as the day for accepting nominations for the presidential election and January 26 next year as the election date.
Some 14,088,500 people are eligible to vote at this election. When compared with the 2005 presidential poll this is an increase of more than 700,000 eligible voters.
Last Monday President Mahinda Rajapaksa directed the Elections Commissioner to hold the presidential election on a suitable date and according to the law, he was required to announce the dates for the acceptance of nominations and the conducting of polls within seven days of the directive being issued.
The upcoming election is widely seen as historic since the President is contesting Former Army Commander and Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka who is known to be one of the chief architects of the victory over terrorism.
The two main contenders are known to have started laying the groundwork for their election campaign with the President’s election manifesto being prepared by a panel comprising allies in the ruling UPFA while General Fonseka is expected to announce his political plans at a news conference tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the Elections Chief told UNF leaders who met him yesterday that he hoped to invite four groups of international election monitors from the Commonwealth, the United Nations and the Asian Election Network.
The UNF leaders asked him to stop the transfer of public servants and police officers in the run up to the poll and prevent certain political parties hosting receptions for their supporters at public expense.
Mr. Dissayanayke said he would look into all these issues soon after he fixed the date for nominations.
The UNF told him that air time on electronic media and space in the print media should be allocated equally for all candidates joining the presidential race and asked him to take steps to issue National Identity Cards to some 1.2 million people before the election so that they could exercise their franchise.
The delegation comprised SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem; UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya; general secretary Tissa Attanayake, Ravi Karunanayake and Democratic People’s Front leader Mano Ganeshan.
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