(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – All arrangements have been made to conduct a peaceful, free and fair Parliamentary Election today (14) to elect the representatives for the Tenth Parliament.
A total of 8,361 candidates, with 5,015 from 408 recognised political parties and 3,346 from 282 independent groups are vying for selection as representatives of the new Parliament consisting of 196 members elected from the nomination list and 29 selected from the national list to set up the 225 Members of Parliament which will be convened on November 21, 2024.
The 29 candidates from the national list will be selected out of 516 candidates from 27 recognized political parties and 11 candidates from two independent groups.
A total of 17,140,354 eligible voters in 25 administrative districts coming under 22 electoral constituencies will get to use their vote to elect the representatives of the Tenth Parliament today at the Parliamentary Election, the Election Commission said.
Voting will be carried out at 13,421 polling stations in the country with approximately 152,000 election officials and 27,000 police officials deployed on duty.
Counting of polls will be conducted at 54 counting centres in the country with 1,582 counting halls for general votes and 452 counting halls for postal votes with a total of 2,034 counting halls. A total of 22 centres have been established to announce election results. A total of around 80,000 election officials are deployed at the vote counting centres.
Out of the total of 737,902 postal votes, 759,083 postal vote applications have been received and 737,902 postal vote applications have been accepted.
A total of 14,150 ballot boxes consisting of 7,850 small, 3,775 medium and 2,525 large sized have been used for this year’s Parliamentary Election.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake advised all voters to use only the ‘X’ symbol to mark the vote for the political party or independent group and to mark the preference votes for 1 to 3 candidates on the ballot paper.
Ballot papers marked by any voters with any other symbols, numbers, images or letters other than the ‘X’ symbol will be rejected, the Elections Commissioner said.
A total of 64,000 Police officials have been deployed on election duty for today’s (14) Parliamentary Election, Police Media Spokesman DIG Nihal Thalduwa said. These Police officials have been deployed covering all polling stations and counting centres across the country.
2017 SLTB and private buses have been deployed to be used for election duties from yesterday and for today’s Parliamentary election activities.
The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) has set up a special programme to address potential disasters during the General Election period and according to DMC Director Pradeep Kodippili, a dedicated unit is set up at the Centre to manage any emergencies which has been launched on November 12 and will work closely with the Elections Secretariat over a five day period, covering two days before and two days after the election on November 14.
The Elections Commissioner said that ballot papers, ballot boxes, stationery items, all election related equipment and election officials were transported yesterday to 13,421 polling stations from the District Secretariat offices and special temporary Election offices set up for the General Election in the country.
The Election Commissioner also said that rehearsals were also conducted yesterday on how the Parliamentary Election should be conducted with the assistance of the Election Secretariat office.
Executive Director of the PAFFREL Organization, Rohana Hettiarachchi said that a group of 6,000 representatives have been deployed for the monitoring of the Parliamentary Election.
