The United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is to commence its campaign on June 20 for the forthcoming local government elections to be held for 64 bodies.

UPFA General Secretary, Minister Susil Premajayantha told the media that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already met with the UPFA organizers of the electorates that come under the 64 local government bodies.

According to the Minister, the organizers have therefore commenced laying the groundwork for the official commencement of the election campaign on June 20.
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is to commence its local government election campaign on July 1.

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) says the party has commenced the initial stages of the campaign and party organizers have been briefed on the work to be carried out.

Elections were held for 234 of the 335 local authorities in the country on March 17 this year and the ruling party UPFA won 205 of the councils.

Elections for 34 localities were not held in March due to the hosting of Cricket World Cup and elections for another 65 councils were postponed due to legal challenges against rejection of nominations. Two more local government institutes in the Mullaitivu district were not ready for elections as the demining operations were still in progress.

The polls for 64 of the remaining 67 local government institutes will be held on July 23.