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Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Thursday, 19 September 2019 01:56 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Chandani Kirinde
The Presidential Election will be held on 16 November, the Election Commission announced yesterday.
Nomination of candidates for the Election of the President will be on 7 October between 9 to 11 a.m. while deposits to contest the election will be accepted from tomorrow till noon on 6 October, officials at the Department said.
The Gazette notification announcing the poll was made under the Presidential Elections Act No. 15 of 1981 by the three-member Commission. Its members are Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya, N.J. Abeysekere and S. Ratnajeevan Hoole.
In the Gazette notification issued last night, the Commission said that the term of office of the President expires on 7 January 2020 and Paragraph (3) of Article 31 of the Constitution requires that a poll for the Election of a new President be taken not less than one month and not more than two months before the expiration of the term of office of the President in office.
17 candidates have so far informed the Commission of the desire to contest this election.
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has named Gotabaya Rajapaksa as its candidate while the JVP has named its leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake as its candidate. The United National Party (UNP) is also expected to name a candidate within the next few days.
This is the eighth Presidential Election to be held in the country with the first held in 1982. It is also the first since the enactment of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which for the first time since the introduction of the Executive Presidency in 1978, pruned the powers of the office of President and also limited the term of office from six to five years.
Nominations of candidates for the election will be accepted at the Election Secretariat, Sarana Mawatha, Rajagiriya.
