Election violence on the increase in SPC election

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 07:18 GMT]
The Network for Election Monitoring (NEM) said Saturday that the election related violation and violence is on the increase in the Southern Provincial Council election which is scheduled to be held on October 10. It is high compared to previous PC elections held recently. Assaults on opposition party members and property damage reported in Hambantota and Galle districts were high, NEM said in a statement.

There is a significant increase of organized attacks on the JVP supporters and party offices in the Hambantota district. Several attacks against UNP supporters and party offices as well as attacks on ruling UPFA supporters have been reported. However, the reported attacks on UPFA supporters were related to internal conflicts between the candidates and especially in the Galle district where there is intense competition between UPFA candidates for preferential votes. This competition has turned to violence and there were reports of death threats against some candidates, it said.

The NEM also observed that political party leaders do not attempt to prevent the violent behaviour of their supporters. Some party leaders encourage their supporters to such violence. It said that it has received 69 incidents related to violation of election regulations and 30 of them involved election violence.