Polling stations to be located in no-man zones in NE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 March 2004, 18:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Commissioner of Elections is to hold consultation with the chiefs of three State armed forces and the Police on Monday regarding his decision to locate polling stations in no man zones in the northeast province enabling the voters residing in the Liberation Tigers held areas to exercise their franchise without any difficulties in the forthcoming general which has been fixed for April 2nd, sources said.

The Elections Commissioner has decided to locate polling stations in no man zones after holding talks on this subject with his five electoral District Returning Officers in the northeast province. Except the Jaffna district Returning Officer who is also the Government Agent of the Jaffna administrative district, all other District Returning Officers in the northeast province participated in the conference held Saturday in the election department. Jaffna District Returning Officer did not attend the conference, as he had not been invited, Jaffna sources said.

A final decision on this subject would be taken Monday at a conference scheduled to be attended by the heads of Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Air Force and Police, election department sources said.

About 260 thousand voters reside in the LTTE controlled areas in the northeast province. LTTE has requested the authorities to locate polling stations in their areas or in no man zones close to the army camps. However the Commissioner of Election has decided to locate polling stations in no man zones and not in LTTE held areas.

To implement his decision the Commissioner of Elections Saturday invited the heads of armed forces and Police for a conference Monday to make necessary arrangement to locate polling stations in no man zones, sources said.

The Commissioner of Elections is of opinion that polling stations for voters in LTTE held areas could be located in no-man zones as mines had been removed from the sites which are expected to be used for locating polling stations, sources said.