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517,123 votes rejected; 3.3 m no show
View(s):More than half a million votes were rejected at Monday’s parliamentary elections mainly due to the lack of awareness among voters on the complicated voting process and a large number of candidates, most of whom were from independent groups, an official said.
He said 517,123 or 4.42 percent of the votes cast were rejected. In addition, 3.3 million voters of the registered 15 million did not cast their votes. Thereby a total of 3.8 million voters or 25 percent of the voters were not involved in electing members to the next Parliament.
“Our counting centre officials have informed us that some of the people had voted for two parties, while some were confused with the preferential numbers,” the official said. The Gampaha district recorded the highest number of rejected votes, with nearly 56,246 of the ballots going waste.
District Secretary Sunil Jayalath, who officiated as the Returning Officer, said the length of the ballot paper, the confusion faced by some voters and the lack of interest shown by others were the major causes for the rejection of votes.
He said the 2 feet-long ballot paper which bore the symbols of the parties and the numerous independent groups had caused confusion among many voters.
The returning officer had observed that several people had correctly voted for the party but had made mistakes in the preferential vote. He said some voters had deliberately invalidated their ballots by drawing a cross across the paper while others had scribbled some ‘opinion’ on the ballots.
Colombo’s District Secretary Kamal Pathmasiri said the district’s 43,372 rejected votes were mainly because of confusion over preferential numbers and independent group numbers.He said the size of the ballot paper, nearly 2.25 feet in length, might have had an impact on the voters.
The Elections watchdog, the People’s Action For Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), also expressed concern over the high number of rejected votes.
Its Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi said he believed the electoral laws needed to be reformed and the voters must be made more aware of the process.
He said if the deposit amounts should be increased to prevent so that there would be fewer independent groups and thereby the length of the ballot papers would be reduced.