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set for Thursday’s mini poll These figures also include 22 councils, where elections have been put off because of court cases and 45 councils in the North-East where security situation was not conducive for holding elections. Some 10,800 polling booths are being set up with 13,327,160 voters eligible to vote. However voters in 22 local authorities for which cases are pending in courts will not vote on Thursday. Elections to the 45 councils in North and East have been put off until September 30th. As the elections day approaches, the battle not only between the parties but also within parties for preference votes is hotting up, according to reports. Candidates on the lists of the major parties are vying for the topmost council post, which will be given to the candidate who polls the highest preference vote. Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said that violence in the lead upto Thursday’s election was low and he hoped the election would be conducted in a peaceful manner. At the request of general secretaries of political parties, the Commissioner has allowed each political party to have five polling agents in each polling booth though according to the Local Government Elections Ordinance only two agents are permitted. Other than the main political parties, 349 independent groups are also contesting the elections. Two local councils in the Killinochchi district have gone to the EPDP and an independent group even before the elections because there were no other political party or group fielding candidates. Postal voting for the election took place on March 20 and 21. Who
can vote Voters can establish their identity in a number of ways including producing any form of identification card issued by a government authority such as a passport, driving licence, postal ID card, or pensions ID. Those who do not possess these forms of identification can get a picture endorsed by the Grama Sevaka Officer of their area, and if this too was not possible they could come with their polling card to the booth at which point they could give a thumb print and proceed to vote. Those who do not receive polling cards can fill in a declaration form and give thumb impressions and cast their vote. These forms will be available at all polling booths. The Elections Commissioner said the idea behind making identification compulsory was to eliminate impersonation and not to prevent any registered voters from casting their vote. |
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