Unimpeded access to polling booths for monitors
 

by Manjula Fernando and Rajmi Manatunga

Two local monitoring bodies and three main international organisations will have access to polling centres to monitor the Presidential Election today.

PAFFREL and CMEV have been permitted by the Elections Commissioner to deploy stationary observers at polling centres while the European Union, Commonwealth Secretariat and the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) will have access to the centres to observe if the poll was free and fair.

Sarvodaya, Diriya Foundation and the Human Development Organisation of Kandy will also be involved at regional level to observe the poll, an Elections Department spokesman said.

PAFFREL Executive Director Kingsley Rodrigo said they will deploy 19,620 stationary and 2,000 mobile monitors in addition to 108 international observers.

Forty per cent of their foreign observers will be in the North and East.

"We expect a low attendance in the North and East," Rodrigo said adding that posters have come up calling November 17 a black day.

"This may be the work of the LTTE, or groups backed by them or an entirely different party. It is not fair to rob these people of their right," the PAFFREL Chief said adding they see a disturbing trend although the situation was calm in the region during the past days.

PAFFREL has appointed 160 civilian committees, concentrating on Puttalam, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Kandy, Matale, Kegalle, Galle, Hambantota and Gampaha districts, classified as violence prone areas by its pre-election monitoring units.

These units comprising civil society leaders will be alert to any tension and take immediate action. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) will deploy 5,000 personnel to monitor the election. "Our observers are already in the field. Additional monitors will be deployed today including 75 mobile teams," CMEV Co-convenor Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu said.

Seventeen international election observers have also arrived on the invitation of the CMEV. In the North-East, two to three election monitors will be deployed at every cluster polling station in addition to the mobile observer teams.

Asked whether any areas have been identified as violence-prone, Saravanamuttu said there was no particular geographical pattern regarding violence during the campaigning.

"The entire North-East will be an area prone to election law violations. Apart from that we have identified places down South and Anuradhapura as being traditionally prone to election violence," he said.

The EU has deployed 66 monitors comprising 22 long term observers who arrived here on October 23 and 44 short term polls observers.

The Commonwealth Secretariat team comprises eight members and the AAEA has 28 members.