More than 14 million persons – 14,088,500 to be exact – are expected to go to the polls on Thursday to elect members to the next Parliament. Out of 7,620 candidates vying for seats in the 225-member Legislature, 196 will be directly elected by the people.

Twenty-nine members will be nominated for the National List of MPs, based on the percentage of votes polled by each party. The main parties in the running are the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA); the United National Front (UNF), led by the United National Party (UNP); the Democratic National Alliance (DNA), under the leadership of detained General (retd.) Sarath Fonseka, and the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), in the North and East.

Colombo district has the highest concentration of registered voters, 1,521,854, followed by Gampaha with 1,474,464 voters and Kurunegala with 1,183,649. Colombo district will also return the largest number of Members of Parliament (19), followed by Gampaha (18), and Kurunegala (15). The Elections Secretariat has made special arrangements for displaced persons to vote from their places of residence. (Read More)

A total of more than 19,000 election monitors will be stationed at voting centres around the country during this week’s General Elections, with an extra-strong concentration of monitors placed at known trouble spots. Intraparty violence is the main concern among monitoring bodies.

Mr. Hettiarachchi said PAFFREL election monitors will not be allowed inside the counting centres; instead they will be stationed at points where the results will be announced. The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) will deploy 6,500 observers at 60 per cent of the polling centres, according to CaFFE director Keerthi Tennakoon.

“We will send mobile teams to the Northern Province, and give priority to areas like Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Kandy, and Nuwara Eliya. We expect comparatively peaceful campaigning in Colombo and in the North.”

CaFFE election monitors too will not be allowed inside ballot counting centres, and only at the results announcing centres. We cannot understand why the Elections Department has decided that monitors should not be allowed into the ballot counting centres,” Mr. Tennakoon said. “This is where the presence of observers is essential. It makes no sense to deploy thousands of observers and not have any of them observing the crucial counting of votes.”

Meanwhile, many internally displaced persons resettled in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu areas are at a loss to know how to go about getting their temporary IDs, Mr Tennakoon said. Obtaining a temporary ID is almost impossible where there is little or no civil administrative infrastructure, he added.

“CaFFE has recorded 319 incidents of election violence – all are cases of assault and attack among candidates and supporters of the same parties. Because the campaigning has been aggressive, we can expect localised violence on polling day,” Mr. Tennakoon said. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) will be deploying 3,700 monitors and 185 mobile teams, according to CMEV national coordinator D. M. Dissanayake. The CMEV will have three international observers in areas known for election violence. (Read More)

As Sri Lankans go to the polls to elect members to the fourteenth parliament on Thursday, April 8, police and election monitors say the battle for preferential votes is turning ugly and for the first time in history, intra- party clashes account for the majority of the incidents of violence.
According to the Police Elections Secretariat, of the 300 incidents of election related violence reported by the end of the week, the majority are related to intra party rivalry over preferential votes, directed by candidates of the ruling UPFA against each other.

“Around 50% of the violence has been directed at UPFA members by others in the same party. We fear that in the coming days violence will increase overall in Nawalapitiya, Matale, Dambulla, Eravur, Kantale, Gampaha, Kurunegala and Hambanthota. Since the police are not doing anything to apprehend election law violators, there is a culture of impunity,” the spokesman for the Campaign for Free and Fair Election, Keerthi Tennakone told Lakbimanews.

Thirty five thousand elections monitors would be deployed by ten election monitoring bodies. There will be no foreign monitors.

In addition, a massive security contingent of 78, 2000 would be deployed on polling day and its aftermath. This includes 58,700 police personnel and 19,500 military personnel, head of the police election secretariat senior DIG Gamini Navaratna said. He further said police would deploy the Special Task Force in areas prone to violence. Accordingly, the STF would be deployed in Gampaha, Matale, Kurunegala and Anuradhapura, an election department official said.
Seven thousand six hundred and twenty candidates will contest for 225 seats in parliament, including 29 national list slots.

Ggovernment claims that the April 08 election will be held under tight security. 59,000 police officers and 20,000 soldiers are deployed to provide security. The election will be monitored by some 30,000 election monitors. Despite all this, the people’s faith in elections is at an all time low due to the actions of the elections commissioner who has engaged in a systematic campaign to sideline journalists, civil society organizations and election monitors.

“The elections commissioner in the last few months has done irrevocable damage to the peoples’ faith in elections. He blocked foreign observers from coming in and refused to allow local monitors to enter the counting centres,” said Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon. “And now for the first time in our election history the commissioner has decided not to hold a pre election media briefing. This has taken away the chance for journalists to ask questions, clarify matters and to draw public attention to flaws.” The elections commissioner has also decided not to allow journalists from photographing VIPs on the day of the election. This is another step to keep the media away from polling booths.

“The commissioner has forbidden the media to take photographs of the VIPs on election day. What’s the logic behind this? What’s the harm in taking a photograph? It’s a tradition that has been there for decades. It’s just another move to limit access to the media. If journalists are kept away from the polling booths anyone can carry out election malpractices without a worry,” Tennakoon added.(Read More)

International election monitors stressed yesterday that Sri Lanka should have a proactive and strong Independent Election Commission even with powers to ban political parties and disqualify candidates unless they adhered to lawful election practices. 

Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) Executive Director Ms. Somsri Han-Anuntasuk told the Daily Mirror in an interview last evening that  an Election Commission should not be afraid of powerful political parties and candidates when implementing the law.

She said that there is such an Election Commission in Thailand.  “They banned a political party recently,” she said. (Read More)

Well-known media personality and Colombo District UNF candidate at the April 8 parliamentary elections, Susil Kindelpitiya, was arrested together with three others yesterday by the Mirihana Police, while they were travelling in a van.

Police said that a 7.62 revolver was also found in the vehicle.

Police media spokesman SP Prishantha Jayakoddy told The Island that a woman had made a complaint to the Mirihana Police on Thursday (April 1) that Kindelpitiya had allegedly threatened to throw acid on her and kill her.

SP Jayakody said that the Mirihana Police had taken Kindelpitiya, former News Editor of a TV station, into custody last morning while he was travelling in a van (driven by another man), a woman and a naval deserter.

SP Jayakody said that further investigations were being conducted. (Read More)

The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) yesterday said that the number of election related violence had risen to 307.

“This is an election where violation of election law is on an increase,” said director of CaFFE, Keerthi Tennakoon. He also said that the Election Commissioner had made sure that there would be no foreign observers at the stations where votes were counted.He also asked how the Commissioner was trying to stop corruption in the election process by stopping journalists from entering the polling booths to video or take pictures of VIP’s when they cast their vote. 

“There were radio stations in the Eastern Province supporting the government. When the opposition tried to do the same thing, the equipment they brought down was confiscated,”

The Supreme Court yesterday directed the Attorney General to convey the decision of the Court to the Elections Commissioner to have some reasonable measures to ensure a free and fair  election as expeditiously as possible before the forthcoming General Elections.

The Bench comprising Justices Shirani Tilakawardane, Saleem Marsoof and S.I. Imam with this direction terminated the proceedings of the fundamental rights violation petition filed by UNP Deputy  Leader Karu Jayasuriya.

Petitioner Karu Jayasuriya in his Petition sought a declaration from the Court that the actions and/or inactions of the Elections Commissioner and the State is imminent infringement of fundamental rights.

He had also asked the Court to direct Elections Commissioner to take steps forthwith to formulate and implement comprehensive guidelines, measures to help protect the integrity and efficacy of the Parliamentary Elections.

He had also sought an interim order for the Commissioner of Elections to inform Court of any person(s) and/or group(s) and/or institution(s) that refuse to obey and/or respect guidelines, measures and systems formulated and/or approved and/or published by the comprehensive guidelines. (Read More)

Inquiries revealed that they used the unauthorized radio broadcast to support a prominent politician of the area contesting the upcoming general election and that it had been in operation during the recent Presidential election campaign as well. Police said the unauthorized radio transmission station based in the Madurankuliya area had been shifted to the Puttalam town to intensify the broadcast in the Puttalam district.

Puttalam police and the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission are conducting further inquiries.