The ruling UPFA combine and the opposition parties have stepped up the election campaign especially in the war ravaged Northern Province ahead of next Saturday’s local elections to 19 councils. The elections are being held in a total of 65 councils in 23 districts and some 2.6 million voters are eligible to vote.The ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are the major contestants. Eelam Peoples Democratic party (EPDP) leader & cabinet minister Douglas Devananda is in overall charge of the Northern Province UPFA campaign. His party is contesting the election under the UPFA betel symbol. Elections Commissioner said , a total of 5,688 candidates are contesting the poll at which 2,630,985 voters are eligible to cast their votes.