Local government elections are scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka on 8 August 2009 for two local councils in the north of the country: Jaffna Municipal Council and Vavuniya Urban Council.
These will be the first elections in the country since the government declared victory in the 26 year old civil war on 18 May 2009. They will also be the first local elections held in the Northern Province in more than 11 years.
On 25 May 2009 the government announced that local elections would be held in Jaffna and Vavuniya.
Nominations took place between 18 June 2009 and 25 June 2009. After the nominations closed the Sri Lankan Department of Election announced that the elections would take place on 8 August 2009, the same day as the Uva Provincial Council elections.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has said that the elections are being held too early, with so many of the electorate displaced. It expects the Jaffna elections to be violent and the results rigged, just like the 2008 Eastern Provincial Counil elections.
The United National Party (UNP) and the People’s Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) have called on the election authorities to bring in foreign election observers.
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