|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 24 April 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Politics | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
| Wayamba PC polls today by Manjula Fernando, Bharatha Malawaraarachchi and Ariyaratne Ganegoda The Wayamba Provincial Council poll, in which 1,539,539 voters are eligible to cast their ballots, will be held today. They will go to 1,204 polling booths to elect 50 members for the North Western (Wayamba) Provincial Council. Nearly 12 recognised political parties and seven independent groups contesting the election have fielded 784 candidates for the election. Thirty four members will be elected from the Kurunegala District while 16 will be from the Puttalam district. This is the first time that an election is being held on a Saturday. Voting begins at 7 am and ends at 4 pm. A spokesman for the Elections Commissioner's office said all arrangements had been made to conduct the poll successfully. More than 12,000 public servants had been assigned for election duties. According to the Elections Secretariat there are 1,089,482 registered voters including 24,276 postal voters, in the Kurunegala district and 450,057 registered voters including additional 5,174 postal voters in the Puttalam district. Chilaw SSP Upali Ranasinghe said necessary steps have been taken to ensure maximum security for the today's election. Accordingly, nearly 5,000 police officers have been assigned for duties to ensure a free and fair election. Police officers have been brought in from outside areas too. Tight security will prevail at polling stations and in the vicinity and Police will conduct mobile patrols in all electorates. Ranasinghe said all measures are in place to ensure a violent-free election similar to the recent General Election. Already, the Police Election Secretariat had received 16 complaints the election violence. However, a spokesman for an election monitoring organisation said all political parties conducted their political campaigns in a peaceful manner. "We have fielded over 1,000 independent election observers to monitor the election in the Kurunegala district while another 650 are in the Puttalam district," a spokesman for the PAFFREL said. Counting will begin after the ballot boxes are returned to the counting centres. The first results are expected on Sunday morning. Results will be announced on TV radio. Postal balloting for the election was held on April 16 and 19 islandwide. Public servants and servicemen who were unable to cast their postal votes on these two days were given an opportunity to vote from April 20 to 23. Three Muslim parties, Sri Lanka Muslim Kachchi, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and Eksath Muslim Janatha Sanvidanaya are contesting the Wayamba elections with all the main major political parties. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
