East ready for polls

Rasika Somarathna

COLOMBO: The May 10 Provincial Council polls in the East would see the biggest ever manpower deployment for a single province in the annals of Sri Lanka's elections, with a 35,000 strong contingent set to fan out across the province to ensure a free and fair election.

According to authorities over 20,000 security personnel and around 15,000 polls officers will be deployed to man election duties, which culminates with the poll. According to DIG Rienzie Perera, a 10,000 strong security contingent would be on polling duties in the Ampara district which houses the largest number of voters - 490,308.

Election related violence in the district has been low with only two out of 22 incidents received so far being categorised as serious.

However all measures have been taken to provide security with special emphasis on the polling day, he said.

In Ampara, 6,578 officers would man polling duties, Assistant Commissioner L.D. Tennekoon said. A total of 430 polling centres have being set up in the entire district. Eleven political parties and 22 independent groups have joined the fray fielding 403 candidates vying for slots among the 14 seats available from the Ampara district.

According to DIG H.M.D. Herath all measures are afoot to provide adequate security for elections with over 6,500 security personnel being deployed on election day in Batticaloa.

According to the DIG only 20 election related violent incidents had being reported so far with the majority being minor.

Election Authorities have planned to deploy over 4,500 officers on the polling day in the Batticaloa district which accounts for 330,950 voters who would elect 11 members to the Eastern Provincial Council.

According to Assistant Elections Commissioner for Trincomalee, Bandara Mapa over 3,000 officers would be deployed for polling duties with 284 centres being set up to cater to 242,463 voters in the district.

Trincomalee would elect 10 members for the Eastern Provincial Council out of 561 contestants who are in the fray. According to DIG Upali Gunasekera who mans election security in the district only 11 incidents had been reported so far with all being minor.

However security has been enhanced to meet any eventuality, the DIG said while emphasising that strict orders had been relayed to all officers to carry out duties without fear or favour. Meanwhile, the main election watchdog PAFFREL said they would deploy over 2,500 election monitors including over 20 foreign observers on election day.

PAFFREL would have two members each for every polling station, in addition to mobile operations. They have also set up four offices in the three districts to monitor the poll.

The election to appoint 37 members for the Eastern PC would be conducted in the three districts at 1,022 polling centres, with 1,342 candidates in the fray from 18 political parties and 73 independent groups.