COLOMBO, Nov. 25 -- Sri Lanka on Tuesday announced that it will invite foreign election monitors for the presidential elections next year.

Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said that he will, however, not invite UN election monitors for the January election.

Speaking to reporters, the elections commissioner said that usually election monitors from Asia, the European Union (EU) and the Commonwealth are invited for a major election.

Local election monitors recently said that Asian monitors had already been invited for the election in January while Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma said last month during a visit to Sri Lanka that Commonwealth monitors had also been invited.

Deshapriya said that he will invite EU monitors as well but not UN monitors as he feels they will not be required to monitor the polls.

The elections commissioner said that UN monitors are invited only if an election is being held for the first time or if there are serious concerns in the electoral process.

In the view of the Elections Commissioner, there is no serious concern in the elections system in Sri Lanka and so UN monitors will not be required.

The presidential election will be held on Jan. 8 and the contest will mainly see President Mahinda Rajapaksa taking on his former Minister Maithripala Sirisena.

The government on Monday received a moral boosting victory ahead of the polls after Parliament approved the budget for next year. Earlier there had been reports that several government members will crossover to the opposition benches and vote against the budget but no such crossovers took place.