Local government elections of Sri Lanka to be held in mid March

Sri Lanka government is to table the local government (amendment) act in the parliament on January 04, government sources say.

The government has planned to hold the local government elections in March and Sinhala radio Neth FM predicts the elections to be held on March 12.

The Deputy Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Indika Bandaranaike told the radio station that the elections should be held before March 31.

The Deputy Minister said the President would soon decide the day the election would be held.

However, government sources say that it is still not decided the system on which the local government elections are to be held. Under the new act, the local government elections are to be held in a mixed system of first-past-the-post system and the proportional representation.

But the Deputy Minister of Local Government said to Neth FM that further three months would be needed to demarcate the divisional boundaries to hold the election under the new system.