2ND LEAD (UPDATE)

Rajapakse, Wickremasinghe, eleven others contest presidential election

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 October 2005, 03:50 GMT]
Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse, Prime Minister and Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, UNP leader and eleven others from other parties handed in their nominations to contest the forthcoming presidential election, which is fixed for November 17. Election Commissioner Mr.Dayananda Dissanayake issued a statement in this regard around 11.30 a. m. following the closure of nominations and after the expiry of the time for objections, election department sources said.

Of the fourteen persons deposited Thursday to contest the presidential poll only thirteen turned up Friday at the Election Secretariat to submit their nominations.

Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse and Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe handed in their nomination papers to the Commissioner of Elections at the auspicious time they selected, sources said.

The election symbol for Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse is Betel, which is the symbol of United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and UNP symbol Elephant for Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Mr.Dayananda Dissanayake appealed to all candidates to extend their full support to his department to conduct violence free poll. He appealed to the candidates to conduct their campaigns according to the rules and regulations of the Election Commission, sources said.

The polls chief Dayananada Dissanayake has warned all the parties contesting in the Presidential polls to respect the rules and regulations of the Elections department to hold a free and fair polls.

The election chief has also directed the police to remove all the cut-outs put up in Colombo and suburbs by the supporters of the main contenders soon after the nominations are submitted on Friday.

Meanwhile, Fifty-four election related violent incidents have been recorded in the island, according to the election unit of the police department, police sources said.