BIG names such as the Rajapaksa brothers, former presidents Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena are missing as the nominations for the November 14 Sri Lankan parliamentary elections closed on Friday.
The Rajapaksa brothers — Mahinda, Gotabaya, Chamal and Basil — will not contest the parliamentary election after decades-long representation.
Mahinda, former prime minister and president, has been contesting parliamentary elections since 1970. He had been elected an MP in all the elections he contested except in 1977.
The heir to the Rajapaksa dynasty, Namal has opted out of the direct contest by placing his name on the cumulative votes polled national list of members of parliament.
The Rajapaksa political stock became low after the 2022 street protests that ousted Gotabaya Rajapaksa less than three years into his presidency due to his inability to handle the island’s unprecedented economic crisis.
“We have accepted 690 nomination lists for the 22 districts while 74 lists have been rejected,” Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake said.
Ratnayaka said the highest number of nominations has come for the eastern Digamadulla district with 64 different groups contesting.
The lowest number of nominations, 15 lists each, has come from the southwestern Moneragala district and the north-central Polonnaruwa district, Ratnayake said.
From the ruling National People’s Power (NPP), the incumbent Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya is contesting in an election for the first time from the Colombo district.
Wickremesinghe, the outgoing president who lost to Anura Kumara Dissanayake in last month’s presidential election, is not contesting a parliamentary election for the first time since 1977.
His prime minister in the last administration Dinesh Gunawardena and former speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena are in the cumulative list from the Wickremesinghe favoured group New Democratic Front.
Scores of ministers and deputies from the past regime have opted out from the race.
As many as 196 members are to be elected from the 22 districts based on the proportional representation system while 29 would be elected from the cumulative votes polled national list to provide a 225-member Parliament for a five-year term.
Political parties and independent groups file lists of candidates for each district. Seats are allocated proportionately according to votes polled.
Individual MPs get elected based on the preferential votes cast in their favour. Each voter is entitled to mark three individual preferences. (PTI)
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