“Depriving franchise would pose serious problems”- Cushnahan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 March 2004, 15:10 GMT]
“The Elections Commissioner has agreed that voters in LTTE held areas in the northeast would be given an opportunity to exercise their franchise. However, preventing them from voting on the polling day would pose serious problems,” said the European Union Election Observation Commission (EU EOM) Chief Observer, Mr.John Cushnahan, addressing a press briefing in the Batticaloa district secretariat Tuesday.

Mr.John Cushnahan

EU's Sri Lanka delegation head, Mr.Wouter Wilton, also participated.

Mr.Cushnahan said four persons including two candidates of different political parties had been killed since the filing of nominations for the forthcoming general election in the Batticaloa district, which has been fixed for April 2nd.

“Violence and democracy cannot go in parallel. The public should rise to the occasion to stop violence,” said Mr. Cushnahan.

Earlier Mr. Cushnahan met with the relatives of the slain Tamil National Alliance candidate, Mr.Rajan Sathyamoorthy, and expressed his condolences. Later he met with the Batticaloa District Returning Officer, Mr.Chelliah Punyamoorthy, at the latter’s office and discussed in detail about the election related arrangements in the district. He met with the lead candidates of all political parties, Mr.Joseph Pararajasingham of the TNA, Mr.M.L.A.M. Hisbullah of the United peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and Mr.M.Rasamanikkam of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) contesting the general election in the Batticaloa district.