The polling centers for the postal voters will be arranged in government offices as usual. The sealed packets of ballot papers are to be delivered to the polling centers via mail.

The Elections Secretariat said it will deploy 300,000 public sector employees for election duty in the forthcoming general election, 50,000 more than the number utilized for poll duties during the presidential election.

Meanwhile, the Elections Department has planned a survey on the number of ballot boxes available in all District Secretariats. The Department wishes to order new ballot boxes to cater to the need following this survey.

Due to the large number of political parties and independent groups that are contesting the election, the ballot papers are getting lengthier and more boxes are needed to stuff them.

The Election Commissioner said that the difficulty in inserting the ballot paper into ballot boxes was also taken into consideration.

Media reports said the ballot paper for the Digamadulla district will be two and half feet in length this time.

A total of 7,620 candidates from 24 political parties and 310 independent groups are contesting for 196 parliamentary seats at the general election to be held on April 8.

The Election Department has also allocated Rs. 22 million to the police to remove the illegal propaganda material of the candidates. Police expects to deploy 1,320 laborers for the clearing operations.