Sri Lanka's much-awaited provincial council election in Tamil-dominated northern areas will be held on September 21 after a gap of 25 years, the election secretariat said today.
Elections for the central and northwestern provincial councils will also be held on the same day.
The process of filing nominations for political parties and independent groups to contest the election were closed at 12 noon today.
The election is seen as crucial by international watchers who regard it as a major step towards reconciliation with the island's Tamil minority since the end of a three-decade-long civil war in 2009 when government troops defeated LTTE rebels fighting for a separate Tamil homeland.
The northern council polls - the first ever since the provincial councils became part of the island's statutes in 1987 - was held back given the resettlement and rehabilitation in the former war ravaged areas.
In the first north and east provincial council elections held in 1988, only one political party participated due to the LTTE's armed campaign to set up a separate Tamil homeland.
The two provinces de-merged in 2006 as a result of a court order and the first ever eastern provincial council election was held in 2008.
This time, the elections is to be keenly contested between the ruling UPFA coalition and Sri Lanka's main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
The TNA has fielded a formidable set of candidates, with retired Supreme Court judge CV Wigneswaran as its chief ministerial candidate.
Meanwhile, leader of the ruling UPFA (United People's Freedom Alliance), Douglas Devananda, who is a central government minister, did not come forward as a chief ministerial nominee, despite widely believed to be the favourite.
The election preparations have being marred by the government move to dilute the powers of the provinces, especially to control land and the provincial police force.
India, the main architects of the provincial councils in Sri Lanka, has insisted that unfettered powers must be allowed to remain with the councils despite demands from President Mahinda Rajapaksa's nationalist allies to scrap them.
