SC decides to hear Vanni,Batticaloa voters' grievances

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2002, 17:40 GMT]
The Supreme Court Friday announced that the six fundamental rights (FR) applications filed by voters of Vanni and Batticaloa electoral districts would be taken up for inquiry on March 15. In these applications the petitioners residing in areas held by the Liberation Tigers have sought order of the SC nullifying the elections held in the Vanni and Batticaloa districts and to order new poll.

The petitioners have stated in their FR applications that their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Article 12 of the Constitution had been violated by the Sri Lanka Army on the elections day, December 05 by preventing them from coming to the areas held by State armed forces to exercise their franchise.

These applications were taken up for inquiry Friday . The SC comprised Justices S.W.Wadugodapitya, C.V.Vigneswaran and Asoka de Silva after preliminary inquiry granted special leave for the petitioners to proceed with their FR applications.

The petitioners have cited six respondents including the Commissioner of Elections and the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army.

At the last general election held on December last year, about 30 thousand Tamil voters in LTTE held Vanni region were prevented by the security forces from entering the areas held by the SLA to exercise their franchise at the clustering polling booths specially established for them. Likewise in Batticaloa district too several thousand Tamil voters from LTTE held areas were debarred from voting in the clustered polling booths established for them in areas held by the SLA.