Lanka faces costliest election, longest ballot paper

A record number of candidates for Sri Lanka’s presidential poll next month has led to the longest-ever ballot paper and the most expensive vote in the country’s history, the Election Commission said yesterday.

Thirty five candidates are running in the November 16 poll, the highest number in any single ballot, Elections Commission chief Mahinda Deshapriya told reporters in Colombo.

“The ballot paper will be the longest-ever we have had,” he said. “It will be 26 inches (65 centimetres) long.

“With the increase in the size of the ballot paper, we will have to import plastic ballot boxes because the wooden boxes we have with us will not be big enough.”

The cost of the election was originally estimated at some $22 million, but it is now thought that will rise to $28 million, officials said.