No nominations so far - officials

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Not a single person had turned up to file nominations at the Jaffna Kachcheri for the second consecutive day, said elections officials there today.

None of the eight parties and groups which had stated their intent to contest the local government polls in Jaffna had finalised their nomination lists by this afternoon.

Sources in Jaffna said that the parties are continuing to have difficulties in finding candidates to file nominations, and that all the parties may not contest all the local government bodies.

Elections are to be held for 17 local government bodies in the peninsula and each party or group would have to find 319 candidates to submit its nominations, if it wishes to contest in all the local government bodies.

Therefore, if all 8 parties wish to file nominations to all 17 local bodies, they will need a staggering 2552 persons in total.

Meanwhile TELO said today that it will fly to Jaffna on Friday to prepare its nomination lists. The organisation said that it will contest all the local government bodies in the peninsula.