A four feet and four inch-long ballot paper which is supposed to be the longest ever will be printed for the Digamadulla electoral district at the forthcoming general election, officials said. The election authorities have been compelled to print such a long ballot paper since as many as 66 political parties and independent groups are fighting the poll in the Ampara district this year.

A model ballot paper has already been prepared by the District Secretariat, Ampara after discussions held in this regard on Sunday. However, only seven candidates are elected to Parliament from Digamadulla.

Assistant Elections Commissioner of Digamadulla Bandara Mapa told Daily Mirror that they would seek the possibility of reducing the size of this ballot paper in the days to come.

Another notable feature of this election is the highest ever number of candidates - 7,620 joining the fray from the 22 electoral districts, scheduled for April 8, election officials said yesterday. There are 36 political parties and 301 independent groups in the fray. 

An official attached to the Elections Secretariat, who wished to remain anonymous, said the authorities concerned would be compelled to print relatively long ballot papers for other districts as well.

Districtwise, the highest number of 836 candidates are contesting from the Colombo district representing 22 parties and 16 independent groups, and the least number of 144 from the Moneragala district representing 14 parties and four independent groups.

Besides, 99 nomination papers filed by 30 political parties and 69 independent groups have been rejected. Accordingly, around 1,000 candidates cannot enter the fray.

Earlier, on several occasions, Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has been critical of political parties and persons without any vote base contesting polls. He pointed out that it would cost dearly to the Elections Department to print lengthy ballot papers.

Special paper is used to make ballot papers. Besides, the election authorities have to spend more money on election related work when a higher number of candidates are in the fray.