<span style="color: #222222;">In Sri Lanka, the National Elections Commission(NEC) has sought the release of an additional 1.2 billion rupees for conduct of Presidential elections as record number of 35 candidates are in fray.<br />'' <br />'' Commission's Director-General Saman Ratnayake told a local daily that the final cost of the conduct of the election is likely to be two billion more than the estimated cost ending with a six billion rupees bill in view of the extra number of candidates.<br />'' <br />'' He said the election cost has been pushed up due to the need of additional ballot boxes, additional staff, transport and additional security etc. The ballot paper for the November 16 polls will be measuring 26 inches in view of the number of candidates.<br />'' <br />'' Mr. Ratnayake explained that in view of the lengthy ballot paper each of the boxes would not be able to hold 400 ballot papers and therefore the NEC would be required to send in more ballot boxes to the booths. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, transporting arrangements will also have to be changed due to the length of the ballot papers. The highest number of candidates in a previous presidential election was 22 in 2010.</span><br />