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Electoral registers on computer by year end
By Shelani Perera
A program initiated by the Elections Department to computerize the electoral register will be effected in all districts by the end of this year, so that revisions to the electoral register which are made annually can be expedited, a top election official said.

Although the project got underway about eight years ago, due to lack of funds and manpower, the Department has so far been able to complete the program in only two districts.

However an agreement signed by the International Forum for Election System in Asia has come forward by providing funds which will enable the Department to effect the program in all districts.

Deputy Commissioner P .M. Siriwardana told The Sunday Times that once the funds come the Department aims at completing the project in two years.
“We have already started the ground work by assessing office space and other technical aspects needed for the project in relevant District and Kachcheri offices. There was no money allocated by the Department for this project. If there was any money left at the end of the year from the budget allocation then we would use it for this project.

It is with much difficulty that we started this as the Department had only one computer programmer. This is a tedious task, but once it is completed we can cut down on a lot of work when the revisions on the electoral register is done”, Mr. Siriwardana said.

According to Mr. Siriwardana generally only about 20% of names in an electoral register has to be revised annually, but as the updating is done manually the staff has to go through the entire list. Once the system is installed much time would be saved”, he said.

“Some of the names specially when they are translated to Tamil, are not accurate but we have installed the Tamil language also in the computer so that changes are effected automatically. Now that IDs are made compulsory there is a check on names duplicated. The Department also makes available the voters register for political parties. Now we will be able to have it on CD, so only limited storing facilities would be necessary,” Mr. Siriwardana said.

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