Fair turnout, but monitors cry foul

A turnout of 55 to 65 percent was reported in the crucial and keenly-fought Eastern Provincial Council elections yesterday – but the polls were marred, especially, by alleged large-scale ballot rigging by the government ally, the Pillayan group in the final hours.

While independent monitors also reported large numbers of cases of assaults, threats, intimidation, impersonation and forcible removal of polling cards, a spokesman for the Elections Commissioner’s office in Colombo said that the turnout in Ampara district was 65 percent, Trincomalee 60 percent and Batticaloa 55 percent.

Monitors and eyewitnesses reported serious incidents of violations of election laws from Sitthandy, Vakarai, Alaadivembu in the Batticaloa district and Pottuvil in the Ampara district and Thiriyaya, Kallarawa and Kuchchaveli in the Trincomalee district.

The Elections Commissioner was last night looking into complaints of malpractices to ascertain whether they could influence the eventual results of the polls in the Eastern Province.

Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayaka in a statement said complaints were received that polling was interrupted in some booths. He said there were also complaints that polling agents had faced obstacles. Mr. Dissanayake said that before the counting took place, the reports of the Senior Presiding officers would be taken into consideration.

In the Kathankudy area, a group of UPFA-TMVP supporters who attempted to impersonate were reportedly beaten up by the army. Both, the main opposition UNP-SLMC alliance and the JVP expressed grave concern over the manner in which the polls were conducted, alleging mass-scale irregularities.

“This was not a free and fair and election. There was rigging in all three districts and especially the Tamil and Muslim areas were targeted preventing people from voting for the UNP-SLMC alliance,” UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayaka told The Sunday Times.

He said in Thirukkovil in the Ampara district, the UNP polling agents were not allowed to carry out their duties and had been turned away by armed groups backed by the army. He said that UNP-SLMC polling agents were not allowed to function in as many as 85 polling booths in the three districts.

JVP frontliner Vijitha Herath told The Sunday Times that the party believed the elections were not free and fair and there would have been a higher voter turnout if a peaceful atmosphere was maintained.

But senior minister and Ampara district campaign leader Nimal Siripala de Silva denied the opposition allegations. He said the elections were held in a democratic manner while he believed the Ampara café bomb blast which killed 12 people and the mortar attack on an Ampara village were beneficial to the UNP-SLMC alliance.

In Ampara polling in the morning was low after Tiger guerrillas reportedly fired mortars close to a polling station in Pannalgama and the security forces retaliated. The clashes apparently led to fears among the people and a low voter turnout but polling increased later in the day.

At Dehiattakandiya in the Ampara district, a group of UPFA supporters who allegedly snatched polling cards from villagers travelling in a tractor to vote were arrested by the police and the STF. They were held by the Dehiattakandiya police, but polls monitor Centre for Monitoring Elections Violence (CMEV) alleged that Deputy Minister Premalal Jayasekara had intervened and got them released.

The election was being monitored by more than 4000 local and international officials in the three districts, but in some areas the police had not permitted some of them to enter polling booths. The CMEV last evening called on the Commissioner of Elections to cancel the voting in identified polling stations where large-scale impersonation and ballot stuffing had taken place.

Another elections monitoring group CAFFE (the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections) said as many as 175 incidents of violations were reported yesterday alone and thus the elections could not be considered as being free and fair.

CAFFE spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon said among the complaints were 26 cases in which polling agents had been chased out. More than 25 cases of assault and 35 cases of threats were also reported yesterday. However, polls monitor PAFFREL said the polls were genrally fair.

Its chairman Kingsley Rodrigo said that except for minor malpractices, the election could be considered as fair, but comparing with 2005 and 2004 elections the turnout was low this time. He said the main reason for the drop was Friday's bomb blast and the LTTE attack on the navy vessel in Trincomalee yesterday morning.

Counting of votes was in progress last night under tight security and final results are expected before noon today, if no re-poll is ordered in any of the booths.

Mutur drama: Who’s playing victim?

Chaos and confusion reigned yesterday over who did what to whom in an incident involving a deputy minister and a police inspector in the eastern town of Mutur.

The Officer-in-Charge of the Mutur police station, A.A. Wahid, was undergoing treatment at the Mutur hospital after Deputy Minister K A. Baiz allegedly assaulted him in public. But hours later, the police officer received orders that he had been transferred to headquarters in Colombo with immediate effect.

Residents said the incident took place when, on the instruction of the area SP, the inspector came to the town to disperse a crowd that had laid siege to a house where Mr. Baiz and his supporters from Puttalam were staying.

A supporter of Mr. Baiz claimed that the officer was transferred because he tried to grab a gun from a homeguard and shoot the deputy minister.