Voting in a provincial election in southern Sri Lanka ended Saturday with a low voter turnout and reports of election law violations, officials said. Compared to the previous provincial election, only 60 per cent turned up to poll, despite personal appeals by President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is from the south, urging voters to participate in a show of solidarity with the government which defeated the Tamil rebels early this year. An estimated 1.7 million voters were eligible to vote in the Southern Province to elect members of the provincial council. More than 1,000 candidates are vying for 55 seats in the council, which is responsible for the administration of the province. Despite the low turnout, the ruling United Peoples Freedom Allaince (UPFA), led by President Rajapaksa, is favoured to win the poll mainly because of its efforts to end Sri Lanka's civil war by defeating the Tamil separatist rebels in May. Elections have been held in seven of the country's nine provinces, and the UPFA has won all seven. Cases of intimidating voters, distributing campaign material during voting, and preventing people from voting were among some of the incidents reported, but there no serious incidents that could disrupt the poll, election monitoring groups said. Tissa Attanayaka, general secretary of the main opposition United National Party, accused the ruling party of misusing state property, including vehicles and officials for the election campaign, in addition to using state television and radio for propaganda work. About 350 incidents of intimidation, shootings and assaults of party supporters have taken place in the six-week campaign, election- monitoring groups reported. Polling, which began at 7 am (0130 GMT), ended at 4 pm. Results were expected early Sunday.
Voting in Sri Lanka for today's Southern Provincial Council election concluded this evening without any major incidents in contrast to the pre-election violence seen in the Province.
Assistant Retaining Officers of the three districts, Galle, Matara and Hambanthota in the Southern Province said 55 to 60 percent voter turnout has been reported.
Election monitors confirmed that the polls were peaceful. They have only received 36 complaints with regard to election violence.
The government took special measures to tighten security at the polling centers deploying 10,000 security personnel to maintain law and order.
However, election monitors say they have seen violations of election law throughout the Province. The monitoring body CaFFE has observed an increase in activity and increased presence by candidates and their supporters roaming throughout the Southern Province in vehicle convoys in violation of election law.
The police have arrested three persons over distributing leaflets of the ruling party candidates at Thudawa in Matara this afternoon.
Counting of ballots has already begun in some centers in the Southern Province, sources confirmed. The Election Secretariat hopes to release the results of the postal votes before midnight today.
Elections were held in 1,485 polling centers in the Province to elect 55 members for a four-year term in the Southern Province Council. A total of 1,091 candidates from 18 political parties and 13 independent groups contested the votes of 1,761,859 registered voters.
Voting for Sri Lanka's Southern Provincial Council election ended peacefully Saturday afternoon with few minor violations and with a fairly good turnout of voters, government officials and election watchdogs said.
The lull in voting has gradually increased by noon and according to the Elections Department over 65 percent of people in the province representing three districts cast their votes.
According to the Center for Monitoring Election Violence minor clashes erupted between rival candidates but no major incidents reported.
Apart from mobilizing over 7,000 police officers, the Army, Navy and the elite special task force of the police were deployed to strengthen the security in the province to minimize rigging of polls.
With over 1,091 candidates contesting from 15 political parties and three independent groups to select 55 councilors, the election will be a chance to test the nerves of the people in the Southern Province, which is the hometown of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.
Rajapaksa cast his vote in his hometown Madamulana and government sources claim that the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) expects a landslide victory similar to the previous provincial elections.
The government taking advantage of military victory over Tamil Tiger rebels has captured the power of other six Provincial Councils and the elections for the recently liberated Northern Province are pending.
Though the opposition calls for an early parliamentary election, the government said that it will be held in April next year and the presidential election in November 2011.
"The government is confident we will get over 80 percent votes at this election" Cabinet Spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.
Meanwhile, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) claim that polls were not free and not fair and the dream of the Rajapakse government to get over 90 percent votes would not come to reality.
UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the government fully used media and state properties in their propaganda campaign.
"Some of the state propaganda programs were held even on yesterday (Friday) and they tried to influence the voters in some of the polling booths," he said.
The Southern Provincial Council polls ended yesterday amid an average voter turnout and large-scale violations of the election laws, officials and observers said.
According to the additional Elections Commissioner W. P. Sumanasiri, the final turnout was around 65 percent. It was lower than the turnout in the last provincial poll in Uva where the turnout was about 70 percent.
Polling began on a dim note in the morning with the turnout recording around 20 to 25 percent in the Hambantota and Matara districts and a 20 percent in the Galle district for more than three hours.
The Southern Provincial Council election was held in a relatively peaceful environment, although a large number of minor election law violations were observed by the election monitoring bodies. They also said the voter turnout was below expectation with an average of 57% reported in all three districts. Monitors added that this was the lowest turnout reported in the recently held Provincial Council elections. However, according to Elections Commissioner’s Department Spokesman, the turnout was between 65 to 70%. The election day was relatively peaceful in comparison to the violent pre-election period, said Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Spokesman, Keerthi Tennakoon. He added the ineffectiveness of the law enforcement officers in curbing election violation during the pre-election period highlights the need for the establishment of an independent Police Commission.
“Even yesterday, candidates and their supporters were roaming throughout the Southern Province in vehicle convoys. This is a total violation of election law in Sri Lanka,” he said........ (Read More)
United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has secured a significant victory in the Southern Provincial Council elections held Saturday.
In the final official results declared by the Election Secretariat on Sunday, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's party has clinched 38 seats in the 55-member council, while the main opposition United National Party scored 14 seats. The Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) secured 3 seats in the council.
Overall, the UPFA received 804,071 votes amounting to 67.88 percent of the votes while the UNP managed secure 297,180 or 25.09 percent. The Marxists came in third with 6.11 percent votes tallying up 72,379 votes.
The voter turnout in the Southern Province was about 65 percent, according to the election officials. More election laws have been violated in this province at the election violated than any other local election according to the election monitoring groups.
The UFPA won all the polling divisions of the Hambanthota District with a majority of nearly 67% securing 8 seats with 192,961votes. The main opposition United National Party clinched 3 seats with 21.65% of votes while the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna secured one seat with 11% of votes.
The Ruling party secured nearly 68% of the votes in Matara District clinching 12 seats while the UNP received 25.9% of votes enabling them to secure 5 seats. The JVP secured another seat with 5.47% votes.
In Galle District, UPFA received over 68.34% of the votes securing 16 seats while the UNP received 27.06 percent of votes with 6 seats. The Marxist JVP clinched a seat in the assembly securing only 3.85% of votes.
Political analysts however say despite the win the ruling party did not receive the majority they expected. The ruling party has expected to win the Southern Province Council polls with over 70 percent of votes.
While the ruling party is expected to win tomorrow’s key provincial election in the south, the opposition is hoping to reduce its margin of victory and prove that the president, Mahinda Rajapaska, is not invincible, ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls due in the next six months.
The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is riding on a crest of popular support after it won a 26-year war with Tamil guerrillas in May. Provincial councils are the next level of political power after parliament. (Read More)
The UNP charged in parliament yesterday that there was a plan to fraudulently switch ballot boxes at today’s Southern Provincial Council elections.
Dayasiri Jayasekera MP (UNP) raised the issue in the House, and said this was to be done by barring the polling agents of opposition parties from accompanying the buses transporting the ballot boxes.
“UNP polling agents have not been given permission to accompany the ballot boxes” he said.
The Leader of the House, Nimal Siripala de Silva, said in response that the UNP was trying to fabricate a lame excuse for the certain defeat they were facing at today’s election.
“Put your party on track before making lame excuses for the defeat,” he said.
He said the UNP had been defeated at seven successive provincial council elections, and would be defeated for the eighth time today.”
The government has sought parliamentary approval to amend the election law to provide for a ‘totally visually impaired’ person to be accompanied by another person when voting at elections.
The Elections (special provisions) (Amendment) Bill has been presented to parliament for this purpose.
According to the provisions of the new Bill, an accompanying person is allowed to mark the ballot paper of the visually impaired person concerned on his direction in the presence of an official on duty at the respective polling booth.
However, the person accompanying should not be a candidate contesting the relevant election. He or she should not either be a presiding officer, or an authorized officer of a polling agent at the relevant election.
In the Bill, the ‘totally visually impaired person’ is a registered voter who is totally blind in both eyes, and eligible to vote.
Every person accompanying such a voter to a polling station should maintain and abide in maintaining the secrecy of such voting. To be eligible to vote, the visually impaired persons should send in applications authorized by the Grama Niladharis and a medical officer.
All preparations were in place for the Southern Provincial Council elections set to commence at 7.00 a.m today. Polls will close at 4.00 p.m. There are 1,761,856 eligible voters in the three districts of Galle, Matara and Hambantota. According to the Election Secretariat today’s polls is estimated to cost the tax payer Rs. 300 million.
District-wise Galle has 761,815 registered voters, Matara 578, 858 and Hambantotta 421, 186. The three districts consist of 10, 7 and 4 electoral divisions respectively and 1,485 polling booths.
A total of 55 councillors, inclusive of two bonus members, would be elected to the Southern Provincial Council. District-wise Galle would elect 23 councillors, Matara 18 and Hambantota 12
The Councillors would be elected through 18 recognised political parties and 13 independent groups. 1,091 candidates are in the fray for the 53 positions excluding the bonus seats.
A total of 23,250 government servants, including 7,000 policemen have been entrusted with the task of conducting today’s poll.
Distribution of ballot boxes and ballot papers commenced at 8.00 a.m. yesterday and the first results are expected to be announced around 11 p.m. today.
Armed policemen have been posted at all polling booths and at all places considered to be volatile. In addition, mobile police patrols would shunt between polling booths at regular intervals, Police headquarters said. Any trouble makers and impersonators would be promptly arrested, Police warned.
