Lawyers' Presidential Election Monitoring Programme

On the instructions of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, Justice and Judicial Reforms Minister W.D.J.Seneviratne will patronize a full time Lawyers' Presidential Election Monitoring Programme to cover election activities in all the electorates of all Districts in the island, stated a media release by the Ministry of Justice and Judicial Reforms yesterday.

The Sri Lanka Free Lawyers' Association has appointed Lawyers' District Committees to monitor election activities covering all Districts. Under the programme, District Committees consisting of three lawyers have been appointed in respect of each District to monitor election activities of all the Electoral Divisions coming under the District as far as maintenance of law and order are concerned. Each Police Division will have one lawyer appointed to look after the maintenance of law and order within the particular police area concerned.

Coordinating Committees of lawyers have been appointed to coordinate affairs on a national level among the Election Commissioner's Office, Attorney General's Department, Police Headquarters and election monitoring agencies. President's Counsel Anil Obeysekera, A.A.de Silva and D.P.Mendis, and Attorneys at Law Saliya Mathew, Champani Padmasekera, Upali Samaraweera, Sampath Tennekone, J.G.Gamage, Nimal Wijesuriya and Gallage will pioneer the Coordinating Committees.

A large delegation of lawyers consisting of Executive Committee Members of the Sri Lanka Free Lawyers' Association including the Coordinating Committee Members met Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse at Temple Trees recently to discuss the working of this programme.