Campaigns peaceful - NPOC

Shirley Wijesinghe

Taken as a whole pre- election violence stands at a low level so far and election campaigns of all political parties are being conducted in a peaceful atmosphere, National Polls Observation Center (NPOC ) Media Spokesman Saman Galappaththi said.

He added that 165 incidents had been reported since December 23 the date of the nomination to the NPOC but only 10 of these could be considered as serious among them attempted murder and attacks with firearms. Out of these, in 78 incidents no suspects have been identified .

Galappaththi praised the Government decision to request every Grama Niladari to be present at their offices on January 11, 12 and 13 to issue temporary identity cards for voters without IDs so that they could vote at the poll and appealed to all party leaders to make them aware about this matter .

NPOC member Lakshitha Jayawardane said they fully agree with the media guidelines 1 and 2 issued by the Elections Commissioner.

According to his guidelines, it is not practical to give the same coverage in State media to other candidates as President Mahinda Rajapaksa. This is because he is the President of the country other than being a Presidential candidate.

Responding to a question by a journalist, NPOC National Organizer Rasanga Harischandra said they will discuss matters related to the non-recognition of temporary identity cards of voters only within the Eastern Province with the Elections Commissioner.

Harishchandra said that NPOC has already engaged the services of two lawyers each in every province to oversee all its activities.