PC polls peaceful - Polls Chief

Elections to the Eastern, North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Councils held on Saturday were peaceful, said Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya issuing a media release yesterday.

The poll was held at 3,247 polling stations for 3,336,417 eligible voters in seven districts.

The release: I am happy about having been able to conduct and conclude the poll peacefully in spite of the members of the same party competing against each other for preferential votes violating election rules and regulations during the prepoll period. On the day of the poll, a peaceful election was conducted sans posters, banners, cutouts and violent incidents” Elections Commissioner said.

“The Returning Officers of the seven districts, the Divisional Secretaries and their staff, the staff of the Elections Secretariat and District Election Offices, Public Servants who carried out election tasks and the service rendered by the election professionals is commendable. Without the support of the senior government officers to the casual staff, it would not have been possible to carry out the work pertaining to the election.

“I thank the officers of the Department of Elections who took special efforts to safeguard the laws related to Elections. The officers of the Department of the Elections made every efforts to safeguard the rules and regulations of the election law.

The presiding officers and staff at polling stations played a major role in ensuring that the polls was conducted according to the legal requirement that the voter’s identity had to be proved by a valid identity document.

“I also thank polls staff as well as the voters who exercised their franchise abiding to the legal requirement.

“I regret several incidents of thuggery and illegal elections propaganda carried out by some among the candidates and their supporters. I thank Police and Special Task Force personnel for their co-operation in conducting the election. “My thanks are also extended to election observation organizations for reporting incidents of violations of the elections law. I also wish to record with appreciation the media institutions and their journalists who coordinated with the Department of Elections and disseminated accurate news and information to the public on the Election process.