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Polls chief to thwart plan to rig postal voting
View(s):For the first time in Sri Lanka, an Elections Department official will be present to supervise postal voting wherever it is held, Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said yesterday. He said the move followed fears expressed by political parties that malpractice could take place at postal voting centres. Mr. Deshapriya said there were allegations that in some instances state sector employees were being told to show their ballot papers to their bosses before the ballot papers were sealed in an envelope.
Postal voters in the armed forces, Police, Civil Defence force and the state-run bus services were among those who had earlier complained of being forced to show their ballot papers before posting. More than 547,000 voters are eligible to cast their postal votes on December 23 and 24. An additional day – December 30 – has also been allotted for those who cannot vote on these two days.
On Friday, United National Party fronliner Karu Jayasuriya, on behalf of the Opposition’s common candidate Maithripala Sirisena raised the issue with the Commissioner, claiming there was fresh information that postal voters had already been told that they would have to show their marked ballot papers to their bosses.
“We fear large-scale malpractice in postal voting could have an influence on the final results of the presidential election,” Mr. Jayasuriya told the Sunday Times.
In a related development, polls monitoring groups asked the Commissioner that access be given for them to monitor the counting at some 1200 centres.
“We have made a request that election monitors be allowed at the counting centres also. If the process is transparent there should be no issue in giving permission to the monitors,” the Campaign For Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Executive Director, Keerthi Tennekoon, said. He said there were only nine countries where monitoring of the counting was not allowed and Sri Lanka was one of them.
Deputy Inspector General P.B. Nikahetiya who is in charge of the police elections division said orders had been given to all police stations to remove illegal posters and cutouts.