COLOMBO: TheElection Commission of Sri Lanka announced on Saturday, Jan.21 that the  Local Government (LG) elections  will be held on March 9.

The accepting of nominations for the upcoming election commenced at 08:30 a.m. on 18 January, and closed at 12 noon on Saturday.

The acceptance of cash deposits for the election also closed Friday Jan.20.

Meanwhile, the Regulation of Election Expenditure Bill was also passed in Parliament on Thursday (19 Jan.), with a majority of 61 votes.

The Bill was passed in Parliament with 97 votes in favour, while 36 MPs voted against the Bill.

Several political parties in the opposition including the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), however, expressed their discontent about scheduling the debate for today, citing the government’s attempts to pass the bill hastily in a bid to postpone the local government election, while various election monitoring organisations raised concerns pertaining to the Bill.