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Voting at workplace for hospital, port, airport staff moots Polls Chief
View(s):The Elections Commissioner is to recommend to the Government to allow hospital employees and staff at ports and airports to cast their vote at their respective institution on election day, a senior official attached to the Election Secretariat said.
He said the proposal will be made to amend laws under the 100-Day programme so that it could be introduced at the upcoming Parliamentary election.
Deputy Commissioner M.M. Mohamed told the Sunday Times that the Elections Department will send these recommendations to the Government.
Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya on Friday proposed at a meeting with representatives of the political parties and election monitoring bodies to set up special polling booths within the main hospitals and airports for officials to cast their votes on election day.
He also noted that this mechanism will be followed only for national elections, not for provincial or local council elections, as it would complicate the counting process.
Election monitoring body, People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), in the recent past, urged the Commissioner to grant special facilities to officials of these sectors, considering their working priorities.
“We welcome this move by the Commissioner. Even though these officials are not entitled to postal votes, they can cast their votes at their workplaces. It would be very comfortable for them,” said PAFFREL Executive Director, Rohana Hettiyarachi.