Electioneering allowed in Kumpu'ruppiddi, Nawalapitiya re-polls

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2010, 09:37 GMT]
Trincomalee District Elections Department is to deploy fifty government officials to hold the re-poll in Kumpu'ruppiddi, a traditional Tamil village located north of Trincomalee town along Trincomalee –Pulmoaddai highway.

The voting held in a polling station in Kumpu'ruppiddi was annulled by the Department of Elections on reports that a gang said to be supporters of a government party minister had forcibly removed bundles of ballot papers on the polling day last week.

Meanwhile the Elections Department has informed political parties and independent groups contesting the Trincomalee electorate and Nawalapitiya electorate that they could continue their normal campaigning including media advertisements and house to house canvassing for re-poll but would have to stop forty eight hours ahead of April 20, the day re-poll is to be held.

The Elections Secretariat said 600 officers would be deployed at polling stations and counting centres in Nawalapitiya electorate in Kandy district and Kumpu'ruppiddi in Trincomalee electorte. Of them 50 officers will be deployed at the Kumpu'ruppiddi polling station in Trincomalee.

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake annulled the results of 34 polling booths in Nawalapitiya and the result of a polling station in Trincomalee electorate on April 8 and called for a re-poll on April 20.