Polls monitors from EU, UN

by Manjula Fernando

The Elections Commissioner has invited international monitors from the European Union, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the United Nations to observe the forthcoming presidential polls expected to be held in the second week of November.

"We have already sent invitations for international observers and are awaiting their response," official sources at the Elections Secretariat told the Daily News yesterday.

The Commissioner has also invited the Association of Asian Election Authorities comprising members of about 10 countries to send observers for the election.

They are expected to carry out monitoring covering the pre-election period, the election day and the post-election period.

At the April 2004 general election, the European Union, the Commonwealth Secretariat and a few other regional independent bodies deployed 140 international observers.

The biggest team of 65 officers was deployed by the EU headed by Chief Observer John Cushnahan and their first team arrived in the country three weeks ahead to observe election violations and violence during the pre-election phase.

The sources said that all local observers who took part in polls monitoring previously will be allowed by the Commissioner to monitor the poll.

Local monitors permitted to oversee the polls are yet to be finalised. He however confirmed that the PAFFREL and the CMEV, the two main independent polls monitoring bodies, are among them.

The PAFFREL said they plan to deploy most of their foreign observers in the violence marred North and East, where they recorded a large number of incidents at the 2004 General Election.

Its National Coordinator Thusitha Aluthpatabendige said they plan to deploy 23,500 local and 125 international monitors for the polls. This includes 1,500 mobile monitors on the election day.

International monitors will arrive from India, Pakistan, Netherlands and Bangladesh.