Polling begins in Jaffna MC, Vavuniyaa UC
[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 August 2009, 07:29 GMT]
Polling began Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m to twenty three members of the
Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) and eleven members to the Vavuniyaa
Urban Council (VUC) in the Northern Province and will close at 4:00 p.m.
Results are expected to be announced at midnight. “We have deployed
more than one thousand two hundred police personnel at all polling
stations in the JMC and VUC. Mobile police patrolling is also being
done in the two local bodies, “said Mr. Nimal Lewke, Deputy Inspector
General of Police, for the northern province at a media briefing in
Vavuniyaa.
In Jaffna, four political parties, Ilankai Thamizh Arasu Kadchchi
(ITAK), United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), United National Party
(UNP) and Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and two independent
groups are in the fray with one hundred seventy four candidates. The
number of registered voters in the Jaffna MC is 1, 00,417 and sixty
seven polling stations are located in JMC limit.
4,388 displaced voters
are eligible to vote at six polling stations located in Puththa’lam
and Kalpiddi in Puththa’lam district.
The counting of votes of displaced voters would be held in Puththa’lam district secretariat and the results would be conveyed to Jaffna district secretariat for release to the media.
In Vavuniyaa, six political parties, Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchchi
(ITAK), United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), United National Party
(UNP), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Sri Lanka Progressive Front
(SLPF), and Democratic Peoples Liberation Front (DPLF) and three
independent groups are in the fray with one hundred thirty five
candidates.
The number of registered voters is 24,626. Sixteen polling
stations are located.
The Jaffna MC and Vavuniyaa UC are being administered by Special
Commissioners since the last elections held to these bodies in 1998.
The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence has reported that the turn out in the Jaffna Municipal Council was 6% and the Vavuniya Urban Council 12% at 10:00 a.m.
Chronology: