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| Friday, 30 July 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| IDs to be made compulsory for voting by Nadira Gunatilleke The Cabinet has decided to amend five Elections laws, namely the Parliamentary Election Act, Presidential Election Act, Provincial Council Election Act, Local Authorities Election Ordinance and the Referendum Act. The amendments will make the identity card compulsory for voting. The main intention of the decision is to prevent vote rigging, said Justice and Law Reforms Minister John Seneviratne. Seneviratne was addressing the weekly Cabinet press briefing held at the Government Information Department, Kirulapona, yesterday. Minister Seneviratne said that the decision was made according to an agreement of a Parliamentary Select Committee represented by all political parties in 2003. Any document that establishes one's entity such as a driving license/passport will be considered as an identity card. Arrangements will be made to issue an identity card to any person within six months. "Our Government is taking action to make the existing election system more democratic. "Sometimes when the voter turns up at the polling centre his or her vote has already been cast. On some occasions some interested parties snatch voters' national identity cards to prevent them from voting. Therefore other types of identity document will also be considered as proof of identity." After amending those five elections acts election officers will not issue ballot papers to voters who do not posses valid identity documents. |
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