Multiple polling cards:
Elections Commissioner takes action
Rasika SOMARATHNA
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has taken steps to annul
any additional polling cards issued to voters of the Western Province,
after authorities found that some had been provided with more than one
polling card. Issuing a media release yesterday, Dissanayake said that
if any voter tries to cast their ballot in more than one location,
during the Western Provincial Council polls on April 25, they would be
dealt with according to the law.
Dayananda Dissanayake |
The Election Secretariat also said that they had detected 20 such
persons in the Colombo district, who had received two polling cards
each.
The Department has made arrangements, to enable these voters to cast
their vote at a single chosen location, authorities added.
They said that, many such cases had been detected since the
computerised advanced data collection system, came into force during
2008. The controversy regarding, multiple polling cards issued to a
single person, in the run up to the Western PC polls, gained media
spotlight since a few days back.
However, the ?Daily News? reliably learns that authorities were aware
of the issue much earlier and had already taken measures to quell the
situation.
Accordingly, the Elections Department has taken steps to inform all
voters who have received more than one polling card, to inform their
present location of residence and the preffered voting center within one
week.
If the voters fail to respond during this time, the authorities are
to decide on the location while taking steps to annul the extra polling
cards, if any.
According to sources, the flaw in the polling card issue had been
detected, after the authorities took steps to install a computerised
data base system in 2007. Later, the system was further advanced in
2008.
Here the authorities had found that, some voters, specially in the
Colombo District had multiple residential locations, due to issues such
as ownership of several houses, frequent changes in lodging, flaws in
registration such as giving false addresses to secure admission of
children to affluent schools etc.
Thus the latest measures by the election authorities, to install a
comprehensive data base is expected to minimise such flaws at future
elections. |