COLOMBO, March 19 (NNN-NEWS.LK) — Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake on Thursday ruled out the possibility of having foreign monitors at the counting centres for the forthcoming General election.

The Elections Commissioner said that none of the political parties made such a request on the nominations day.

The main Opposition, the United National Party has sent a written request to the Elections Commissioner asking for the presence of foreign poll observers at the counting centres to ensure accuracy of election results.

The Elections Commissioner has turned down this request saying that the request should have been made on the day nominations were submitted.

Meanwhile, propaganda campaign of the United National Freedom Alliance begins from the Kandy district Friday under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The UPFA has planned to conduct 26 main rallies headed by the president in each district. 74 electoral level rallies will be held under the patronage of the Prime Minister. In addition, the UPFA is to carry out a house-to-house awareness campaign.

Accordingly, the UPFA has organized over 40,000 rural and estate level pocket meetings.

The 2010 Sri Lankan parliamentary election will be held on April 8 to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka’s 14th Parliament. The last parliamentary election was held on April 2, 2004.

General elections will be held to select 196 members of the parliament. The other 29 will be chosen from the national lists of political parties and/or independent groups.

The 13th Parliament (also known as the 6th Parliament) was dissolved by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Feb 9. Nominations took place between Feb 19-26. — NNN-NEWS.LK

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