21,000 Police personnel for polls duty

Rasika Somarathna, Chaminda Perera and Daya Perera

COLOMBO: The campaigning for North Central and Sabaragamuwa provincial council elections ended by midnight yesterday with the three main contenders the UPFA, UNP and JVP concluding their campaigns vowing to grab power in the two Councils on August 23.

The final UPFA rally was held in Embilipitiya yesterday under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa with the participation of a massive crowd.

Meanwhile the UNP held their two final rallies in Kegalle and Ratnapura under the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe while the JVP held their meeting in Kegalle with party leader Somawansa Amarasinghe presiding over.

Meanwhile, authorities said that campaigning over electronic media should conclude by August 21 and print media by August 22. Election Authorities and Police said To

yesterday that all measures were afoot to ensure a free and fair election.

The Election secretariat in Colombo said that they had sent 2,100 officers and over 1,000 vehicles yesterday to the two provinces for election duties.

In addition the Police are set to deploy over 21,000 officers during the election day to uphold law and order.

The total number of election officials on duty is expected to exceed 12,000.

According to the Elections Secretariat, the IGP has been informed to beef up the security in the areas where incidents of pre elections violence are reportedly on the rise and over a hundred Senior Election officers are to be assigned with the task manning the polling booths.

These elections officers living in areas other than North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces are expected to reach their duty station today. An extent of 500 square metres surrounding a polling booth has been declared a security zone and police officers are to be detailed to provided security.

The Grama Niladharis have been directed to stay close to the polling booths in case of emergency.

The Commissioner also expects a report from the PAFFREL representatives of each polling booth who are involved in independent election monitoring and this report should be forwarded to him through the respective Senior Presiding Officer (SPOs).

No one other than those involved in election duty will be permitted to enter this zone and Police will prevent such trespassers from entering the premises.

The SPOs report on the respective polling booth has been made compulsory and each SPO must forward their report to the Elections Commissioner to comply with this directive.

According the Elections Secretariat, the commissioner found it difficult to cancel the election of some polling booths where malpractices reportedly took place during the last election for want of this report.

All ballot papers will be cancelled and a fresh election will be called if any malpractice takes place in any polling booth after the reports of SPOs, Assistant Returning Officers and independent observers are taken into consideration, Election Secretariat sources said.

The representatives of political parties contesting the election can paste a sticker on the ballot box after the voting process is over and the ballot box sealed by the respective SPO.

Political parties should have to take prior approval from the Elections Commissioner for this.

Elections Secretariat sources said the political parties should extend their support to the law enforcement authorities to minimise the incidents of election violence and intimidations. “On our part we have done maximum in ensuring free and fair election in these two provinces a high ranking officer said.”

Meanwhile Election Observers said yesterday that violence was rising ahead of saturdays poll, specially in the North Central province.

Sri Lanka’s main election watch dog PAFFREL said that they had recorded over 130 related incidents so far.

The National Polls Observation Centre said 159 incidents (including seven serious ones) have been reported so far, including eight incidents in Anuradhapura yesterday.

They also said that they would be deploying over 3000 monitors for observation purposes on the election day.

The August 23 poll is expected appoint 44 members for Sabaragamuwa and 33 members for North Central respectively.