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| Wednesday, 18 February 2004 |
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by Anura Maitipe, Sarath Malalasekera and Chamikara Weerasinghe Nearly 500,000 new voters will be eligible to cast their ballot for the first time at the April 2 General Election. As a result, the number of MPs to be elected in certain districts too have changed, a spokesman for the Election Commissioner's Department told the Daily News yesterday. The total number of registered voters is 12,899,032, based on the 2002 electoral list. This includes 470,824 new voters. In the Colombo district, the number of Mps that can be elected have declined from 21 to 20 over the previous number while in Gampaha it has come down from 18 to 17. However, in the Kurunegala district, the number of MPs has increased from 15 to 16 and in Puttalam from seven to eight. Meanwhile, the limit on the number of Members in the other districts has not changed. They are: Kalutara (10), Kandy (12), Matale (05), Nuwara Eliya (07), Galle (10), Matara (08), Hambantota (07), Digamadulla (06), Anuradhapura (08), Polonnaruwa (05), Moneragala (05), Ratnapura (10), Kegalle (09), Badulla (08), Jaffna (10), Vanni (06), Batticaloa (05) and Trincomalee (04). Two hundred forty four candidates must be nominated by each recognised political party, alliance or Independent Group for the 22 polling Districts. Only 196 members can be elected by voters while 29 candidates will be nominated from the National List according to the percentage of votes obtained by each party. Parliament will comprise 225 members. Meanwhile, police began their preparations for the General Elections by setting up two special units headed by two Deputy Inspectors General of Police to be in charge of election duties and combat poll violence. Police Chief Indra de Silva set up these units yesterday. Narcotics and Crimes Intelligence DIG Jayantha Wickremaratne will be in charge of the team tasked with combating election related violence while DIG Gamini Navaratne will head the election duty team. Divisional DIGs and Senior Superintendents of the areas will assist DIG Wickremaratne and DIG Navaratne, the IGP said. The IGP also instructed Officers-in-Charge of all police stations to carry out their task impartially without bowing to political pressure. "If I receive any complaint that the OIC of the area is acting partially or harassing any person or persons, I shall not hesitate to take action against such officer after an inquiry," IGP de Silva added. A special police team will be on hand at the Police Headquarters, Colombo to deal with emergencies and to be dispatched to areas where senior police officers are inactive, the IGP said. The Election Secretariat on the fifth floor of the Colombo Police Headquarters started operations from yesterday. The secretariat will function round the clock to receive complaints on election-related violence until the conclusion of the Election. Secretariat sources said they will closely monitor election related violence with the help of election monitors of the People's Action For Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL). Deputy Inspector General B. K. Gamini Navaratne will supervise operations of the Election Secretariat while OIC S. K. Ratnayake will direct the functions, police said. |
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