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Around twenty candidates likely for presidential poll
View(s):At least 15 registered political parties have informed the Elections Commission that they would be contesting the upcoming presidential election, a senior official said.
He said 12 of them had officially informed the Commission of their plans to contest the poll while three others had verbally conveyed their decision.
“We believe there will be around 20 candidates for the election,” he said. The official said the Commission had requested political parties to convey their intention of contesting the election as the Commission was preparing the required ballot boxes. “If the ballot paper is long the number of ballot boxes will have to be increased,” he added.
Among the parties which have confirmed to the Commission that they would be fielding a presidential candidate are the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the Eksath Lanka Maha Sabah Party, the United Socialist Party, the Jana Setha Peramuna, the Nawa Sama Samaja Party, the Frontline Socialist Party and the Democratic National Movement.
At the last Presidential election 19 candidates contested.