Political parties, officials hail exemplary poll

Rasika Somarathna in Batticaloa

Political parties and officials yesterday hailed the successful conclusion of the Local Government Elections in the Batticaloa district as a catalyst to restoring normalcy and democratic process in the area.

DIG Mahinda Balasuriya commenting on the polls said that the absence of even a single complaint on election day itself was a unique achievement in the annals of elections in Sri Lanka.

While claiming that the elections was held under trying conditions after a lapse of 14 years, he attributed the success of the elections to the exemplary conduct of the people of Batticaloa.

According to UPFA mayoral choice for the Batticaloa Municipal Council Edwin Krishnandaraja alias Pradeep Master, the elections were all about the civic rights of the Batticaloa populace which had been suppressed for a long time which was amply demonstrated by the high turn out despite difficulties.

The SLMC candidates contesting elections said that despite some discrepancies the election was largely free and fair and urged the authorities to have better guidelines on the elections to come to make it as free and fair as possible.

PAFFREL, the largest polls monitoring body in the country said that the initial fears expressed by some parties regarding the use of arms for election purposes was unfounded as there was no such incident reported during the entire period of the election. PAFFREL announced yesterday that the concluded election was largely free and fair and also as one of the best conducted in recent times.

Assistant Commissioner for Elections M. Krishnandalingam attributed the success of the elections to the resilience of the Batticaloa people and stressed that the end result amply demonstrated their desire to uphold democracy through the election process.