JO’s Pohottuwa party steaming ahead with election prep 

By Chathuri Dissanayake

Hot on the heels of nominations being called for 93 local government bodies, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), running under the ‘Pohottuwa’ (flower bud) symbol formed by Joint Opposition members, paid deposits in three districts. 

Firing the first salvo against the hopes of reconciliation between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s ruling faction led by President Maithripala Sirisena and the Joint Opposition faction led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the newly-formed party went ahead with paying deposits for separate nominations to contest the upcoming local government elections. 

However, senior SLFP member and United People’s Freedom Alliance Secretary Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that the move would have no effect on negotiations.  Further, he told the Daily FT that the surprise move by the Sri Lanka Freedom Front would not be a “problem for the party.”  “We have no problem. We have made our nomination lists separately. If they don’t want to join then we will go ahead with the nominations,” he said. However, the party is in no hurry to file the nominations. Amaraweera said that the party had enough time to file its nominations.  “We will not rush it till the given dates,” he said.  The SLLP however is going ahead and will pay the deposits for all other districts in the coming days, the party’s Media Spokesperson Sanjeewa Edirimanna said. 

The party is in the final stages of finalising nominations lists as well, he said.“Now what’s left is deciding the slots to be allocated for other parties in our coalition,” he explained. 

LG Polls: nominations to be accepted from 11 Dec. 

District Returning Officers will call for nominations for the elections of 93 local government bodies from 11 December until 12.00 p.m. on 14 December, the Elections Commission revealed. 

The announcement has been made by District Returning Officers in the relevant local government jurisdictions, Additional Elections Commissioner M.M. Mohammed told Daily FT.

The Commission, which convened on Saturday, had decided to hold polls for 93 local government institutions which are not affected by the issue of the delimitations gazette notification and with no legal obstacles preventing elections being held. 

Accordingly, the announcement with regard to calling for nominations was issued yesterday. 

The Commission announced that deposits with regard to the elections could be made with effect from yesterday, the official Government news website said. The time period for making deposits will end at 12.00 p.m. on 13 December.