The Hindu : Ranil, Peiris among over 6,000 candidates in fray

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 25, 2004

International

International

Ranil, Peiris among over 6,000 candidates in fray

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO, FEB. 24. More than 6,000 candidates, including the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, are contesting the 13th Parliamentary elections to be held on April 2.

In addition to Mr. Wickremesinghe, who is directly contesting from Colombo, the prominent political leaders include Colombo's Chief Negotiator, G.L. Peiris, and the Media Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, who are the national list candidates and will be elected based on district-level performance of their parties.

The total electorate in the country, where the voting age is 18, increased by 4.4 lakhs from 12,428,762 during the 2002 Parliamentary elections to 12,899,032 registered voters for the April 2 elections.

A total of 24 political parties and 192 independent groups were contesting from 22 electoral districts, which return 196 directly elected MPs to the 225-member Parliament, the Elections Department said.

A total of 6,024 candidates — 3,361 of whom are from political parties and 2,337 are from independent groups — are contesting. In addition, political parties have named 326 candidates for their national lists.

Significantly, both the main parties — the ruling United National Party (UNP) and the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) — have not fielded candidates from the northern Jaffna peninsula. However, they have filed lists for the other north-eastern electoral districts.

Colombo, which returns 20 MPs, has the highest number of candidates — 644 — followed by the neighbouring Gampaha district, which has 480 contestants. A total of 789 candidates are contesting from the Tamil majority north-east, which has five electoral districts and returns 31 MPs. In the north-east, the Muslim majority Amparai district had the highest number of candidates — 210 — followed by Vanni with 171 contestants.

With nominations closing today, the elections are now set to enter a phase of active campaigning, with the main players scheduled to commence political rallies later this week.

The three major players — the ruling United National Front (UNF), the Opposition UPFA and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) — are scheduled to hold their first public rallies on February 26. The UNF's rally will be held in Kandy, home to the sacred Dalada Maligawa, while the UPFA's public rally will be held in its stronghold, Anuradhapura, in north central Sri Lanka.

The TNA, for its part, is starting its campaign from Vavuniya, barely a few kilometres from the areas under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

No decision has been taken yet on conducting polls in rebel-held Sri Lanka, with the main issue — that of deploying Sri Lanka Police personnel to man the elections — remaining unresolved.

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