Sabaragamuwa, NCP go to polls today

Rajmi MANATUNGA

COLOMBO: One thousand six hundred and ninety eight candidates from 45 political parties and 34 independent groups will vie for 75 provincial council seats, as voting for the North Central and Sabaragamuwa PC Elections get under way from 7 a.m. today.

A total of 2,165,280 voters, 846,454 voters from North Central and 1,3,18,826 from Sabaragamuwa, will cast their votes at the twin mini polls, to be conducted at 758 and 1,014 polling stations in NCP and Sabaragamuwa respectively.

Elections authorities said over 15,000 of their personnel will be on duty in the two provinces today, supported by 21,000 police and personnel deployed to maintain law and order during the day.

Over 100 hundred Senior Election Officers from areas other than North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces have been entrusted with the task of manning the polling booths. Around 1,000 vehicles will also be used for their election duties. See graphic on Page 4

For the first time, the production of the National Identity card, an alternative identity document approved by the Elections Department or the temporary identity card issued by the Grama Niladhari has been made mandatory for voting at the two PC polls.

The Elections Commissioner has decided to implement a host of measures to ensure a free and fair election today.

The Senior Presiding Officer who is the sole authority at a polling station will be responsible for maintaining order at the respective station.

Only the persons authorised under Law will be permitted to enter a polling station. They are Secretary of a contesting political party, candidates (one from each party or independent group at a time), polling agents (two from each part or independent group), police officers on duty, registered voters and domestic observers approved by the Elections Commissioner (one from each organisation).

Personal guards, fire arms or cellular phones will not be permitted into the polling stations, while a security zone will be declared within a radius of half a kilometre of every station.

Canvassing for votes, soliciting votes, persuading electors note to vote for a political party or independent group and distributing or exhibiting hand bills, placards posters, drawings, symbols, etc will be prohibited within the zone.

Campaigning for the two provincial council elections ended midnight Wednesday with the three main contenders, the UPFA, UNP and JVP, claiming victory at their final rallies.

Campaigning over electronic media and print media concluded on Thursday and Friday respectively.

The final UPFA rally was held in Embilipitiya under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa while the UNP held their two final rallies in Kegalle and Ratnapura presided by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The JVP’s final meeting was in Kegalle under the patronage of party leader Somawansa Amarasinghe. Two election monitoring groups, PAFFREL and CMEV, will be permitted within polling stations during the election day while CAFFE and the Diriya foundation will be permitted to continue to monitor the polls without entering polling centres.

According to PAFFREL, 3,000 of their monitors will be deployed in the two provinces on the election day.