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Few surprises in names for polls
By Chandani Kirinde
As nominations for the April 2 polls closed last week with a record number of 5698 candidates contesting the election, there were few surprises in the names that entered the fray mainly from the leading political parties. Twenty-four political parties and 192 independent groups handed in their nominations to win a seat in the 225-member legislature - 196 of whom would be elected.

Almost all the former members of the last Parliament were among those given the ticket to contest the polls as well several of those who lost out in the 2000 general election.

The UNF Colombo list contained many of the government heavy weights including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, M.H. Mohamed, Gamini Lokuge, Karunasena Kodituwakku, Milinda Moragoda, Ravi Karunanayake, Mohamed Mahroof and Bandula Gunawardena while the Alliance's Colombo list consisted of several prominent members including Susil Premajayanth, Wimal Weerawansa, Dinesh Gunawardena, Sunil Handunnetti, A.H.M. Fowzie, Chandana Kathiriarachchi, Jeevan Kumaratunga and Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.

Some of the prominent names not contesting the polls include former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Anuruddha Ratwatte, Thilina Bandara Tennakoon, Imtiaz Bakeer Marker, Raja Collure and Mallika De Mel. Mr. Wickramanayake's son Vidura will contest from the Kalutara district. The President's office has said that even though the former Prime Minister's name is not included in the UPFA national list submitted to the Elections Commissioner, he would be the first on the list.

The UPFA's list includes Information Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, Richard Pathirana, Wiswa Warnapala, D.E.W .Gunasekera and Geetanjana Gunawardena.

The UNF's national list comprised among others the names of at least four Cabinet Ministers namely G.L.Peiris, Thilak Marapana, K.N. Choksy and Tyronne Fernando, as well as A.H.M. Azwer, Naveen Dissanayake, Ravindra Randeniya and two former ministers Dr.Ranjith Atapattu and Ronnie De Mel.

The new entrants to the political scene, members of the Buddhist clergy also fielded candidates from the Jathika Hela Urumaya while the other candidates were drawn from lesser-known parties that have decided to join the fray.

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