Opposition parties in Sri Lanka fear election malpractice

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2008, 02:12 GMT]
All activities of the political parties and independent groups contesting the Eastern provincial council elections ended Wednesday midnight, the office of Elections Department (ED) announced Thursday. Meanwhile, expressing fear that Colombo was preparing itself for a large-scale election rigging, UNP parliamentarian Laxman Kiriyelle has accused the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry for its alleged involvement in distributing blank polling cards in the East. It is also alleged that nearly 170,000 polling cards remained stagnant in the post offices without being delivered and these were taken away by the paramilitary Pillayan group.

Though there has been numerous demands from various political groups for immediate disarming of Pillayan group, the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has been turning a blind eye ignoring all such requests, sources in Colombo said.

18 political parties and 56 independent groups had submitted their nominations for the May 10 Eastern provincial council election. 1432 candidates are contesting the elections to elect a total of 37 members including two bonus members.

• 11 councilors will be elected in Batticaloa district
• 10 councilors will be elected in Trincomalee district
• A total of 14 councilors will be elected in Ampaa'ra district

There will be two bonus members in addition to these 35 councillors.

A total of 9, 82,721 voters from Ampaa'rai, Batticaloa and Trincomalle districts are eligible to cast their votes, ED announced Thursday.

Meanwhile, Tissa Athanayake the General secretary of United National Party (UNP) speaking in the House of Representatives Tuesday said that there are 12 camps of Pillayan paramilitary group in East in the three districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalle and Ampaa’rai.

He brought to the attention of the House that Pillayan paramilitary group has 2 camps in Ea’raavoor and Vaazhaichcheanai while the rest of the camps are located in Chengkaladi, Batticaloa, Kalladi, Aaraiyampathi, Kokkaddichchoalai, Thoppikkal and Tricomalee.

Meanwhile, UNP parliamentarian Laxman Kiriyelle has accused the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry for its alleged involvement in distributing blank polling cards in the East and warned that the government is preparing itself for a large scale election rigging. He expressed hope that the Elections Commissioner (EC) will take suitable preventive action regarding this.

All the opposition parties have already provided evidences of widespread acts of election related violence in the East. Even groups such as People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and Eeelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) (Pathmanaba group) working along with the government with mutual understanding have made similar allegations.

Apart from this the cabinet minister Douglas Devananda, while admitting that there are numerous security problems prevailing in the East, has evaded the issue of election related violence by claiming that the situation is better than when the Eastern province was under the control of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Meanwhile, Nihal Galapaththi, Hambantota district Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Member of Parliament (MP), headed a protest march in Ampaa'rai on Tuesday against Pillayan Group for staging an attack against a JVP supporter Monday.

Mr. Galapathy accused that 20 armed personnel of Pillayan carrying posters supporting the candidates of the paramilitary group attacked a JVP supporter, a Tamil youth involved in distributing election propaganda pamphlets of the party Monday afternoon in Thirukkoayil in Ampaa'rai district, causing severe injuries to him.

The injured JVP supporter has been admitted to Ampaa'rai hospital and the government must provide an answer for this act since Pillayan is contesting in the provincial election as a candidate backed by the government, Galapathy said

UNP and SLFP (People’s Wing) staged a protest Tuesday outside of the office of the Commissioner of Elections demanding that Pillayan group must be disarmed prior to the Saturday elections. Their protests will continue till the day prior to the election, spokesmen for the parties said.

In addition, it is alleged that nearly 170,000 polling cards remained stagnant in the post offices without being delivered and they were taken away by Pillayan group for distribution.

Pillayan group operatives who recently went to Kaaraitheevu forcibly took away polling cards from the households, sources allege. In addition, two vehicles sans license plates were seen circling around in order to intimidate the public, sources said. Samurthi (Poverty Alleviation Programme) officers and members of school community are also being forced to take part in election activities sources in the region said.

Analysts, both local and International have already expressed concern as to the fairness of the Provincial elections in the East under the prevailing unsettled situation.