The postal voting of the 2023 Local Government Election has been postponed until further notice, the Election Commission announced today.

Announcing the decision in a media release, Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake mentioned that the election body has not received the postal voting ballots from the Department of Government Printing on time.

The postal voting of the upcoming local government election, which is scheduled for March 09, was supposed to be held on February 22, 23, 24 and 28.

Accordingly, the new dates set for the postal voting will be communicated to the public in due time.

Meanwhile, Government Printer Gangani Liyanage has urged the Inspector General of Police to tighten the security measures to ensure that the printing work for the local government election is carried out without interruption.

Speaking to Ada Derana, Liyanage noted that only three police officers have been deployed despite the request made from the police chief to deploy 60 officers (35 during daytime and 25 at night) to oversee the security matters of the local government election’s printing work.

She also mentioned that the initial printing work pertaining to the upcoming local government election is already completed.

On Tuesday (Feb 14), the Election Commission, citing “unavoidable reasons”, announced that ballot papers for the postal voting could not be distributed as scheduled on February 15.