Colombo, Dec 3 (PTI) The government has decided to call fresh nominations for the local councils which have been on hold since March of 2023, it was announced on Tuesday.

The election for 340 councils for four-year terms came to be postponed even after nominations had been filed and dates set twice in March and April of 2023.

Also Read | Who Is Krish Arora? Know All About 10-Year-Old Indian-British Prodigy With IQ Higher Than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

The last local election was held in February of 2018.

The Cabinet decided on Monday to amend the local council elections Act to facilitate calling of fresh nominations, Cabinet spokesperson Nalinda Jayathissa said.

Also Read | Shocking Child Pornography Case: Taiwan TV Host Mickey Huang Gets 8 Months in Jail for Possessing 2,259 Sexual Images of 41 Minors.

“The amendment would allow the elections commission to announce fresh nominations”, Jayathissa said.

The Cabinet of Ministers granted the approval to draft the Local Government Elections (Special Provisions) Bill in order to make necessary provisions for the recalling of nominations for Local Government (LG) elections, he said.

The then government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe said the treasury was unable to provide monies required due to the economic crisis.

However, the opposition went to court, which, in turn, ruled that Wickremesinghe as the minister of finance had violated the fundamental rights of the voters by not holding the election.

The court found fault with the election commission and ordered that the election be held as soon as possible.

Earlier on November 23, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath had announced that Sri Lanka's local council election could take place early next year with the new National People's Power (NPP) government initially thought to be holding the election by January next year.

Local media reports said that an all party leaders' meeting on November 25, it was agreed that the nominations called in the year 2023 should be cancelled and new nominations should be called for.

Accordingly, the Cabinet approved the proposal submitted by the Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government to instruct the Legal Draftsman to prepare the Local Government Elections (Special Provisions) Bill.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)