The General Election will be held on April 8 and nominations will be accepted from February 19 to 26, stated the Gazette notification, no. 1640/16 of Feb 09, 2010.

The Parliament was dissolved midnight yesterday (09 Feb) by President Mahinda Rajapaksa under the powers vested in him under Article 70 of the Constitution and in pursuance of the provisions of Section 10 of the Parliamentary Elections Act no. 1 of 1981.

The new Parliament is scheduled to meet on April 22, 2010.

Meanwhile the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is now conducting interviews to select candidates to contest for the upcoming General Election.

The interviewing process by three-provincially based nomination boards commenced yesterday and will continue today.

The nomination board for the North Western, North Central, Eastern and Northern provinces is headed by Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva while Minister W. D. J. Seneviratne heads nomination board for the Western, Central and Uva provinces. Minister Susil Premjayanth leads the nomination board for the Southern and Sabaragamuwa provinces.

An appeal board headed by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake has been appointed to consider appeals of applicants.