UNP loses legal battle to contest CMC in party's name

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 May 2006, 02:12 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) Friday lost the legal battle to contest the election for the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) under UNP banner. The UNP has now been forced to contest the election through an independent group, which was accepted by the Returning Officer on the nomination day. The election to the CMC is fixed for May 20 with other twenty local councils, legal sources said.

The Returning Officer rejected the nomination list of the UNP, submitted on February 16 to contest the CMC election earlier fixed for March 30th, citing reasons that one of the candidates in the UNP list was underage (below eighteen years of age).

The UNP immediately filed a petition in the Court of Appeal against the order of the Returning Officer, seeking the court to direct the Commissioner of Elections to accept UNP's nomination. However the Court of Appeal made a restraining order on the Commissioner of Elections from holding the election to CMC as scheduled on March 30 and fixed the inquiry into the UNP application for a later date, legal sources said.

The Court of Appeal held inquiry into the UNP application on several dates and finally upheld the order of the Returning Officer rejecting the UNP's nomination list. The UNP thereafter filed a revision application against the Court of Appeal determination in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court after its inquiry into the UNP revision application Friday delivered its verdict upholding the order of the Court of Appeal that the UNP nomination list was not valid according to the Local Government Election Ordinance, legal sources said.