Cancel violence marred polls says watchdog

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 October 2000, 13:24 GMT]
The independent polls watch dog, the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) called on the Commissioner of Elections as voting drew to a close Tuesday afternoon to cancel the polls in eleven polling divisions where it said the "nature and extent of violence were so widespread and serious as to render the final outcome in these areas meaningless".

The following is the full text of the statement issued by the CMEV:

"As at 2.30 p.m on election day, CMEV has received reports of serious election violations, including instances of murder, bombing, stuffing of ballot boxes, removal of ballot boxes, systematic impersonation and ballot rigging, threats and intimidation of both polling agents and voters, and the use of firearms including automatic weapons, as well as the misuse of state resources including military vehicles and personal, from 210 polling centres in 57 electorates."

"Of these, the nature and extent of violations have been so widespread and serious in the following electorates as to render the final outcome in these areas utterly meaningless. CMEV, therefore, urges the Commissioner of Elections to annul the voting in these electoral divisions even before the poll is closed, in order to minimize the violence in these areas as well as to restore credibility to the electoral process in other regions of the country".

Province	District	Electoral Division
1.North Western	Puttalam	Anamaduwa
2.North Central	Anuradhapura	Kalawela
3.Western	Gampaha	Katana
4.Western	Gampaha	Ja Ela
5.Central	Kandy	Gampola
6.Central	Kandy	Nawalapitiya
7.Central	Kandy	PathaDumbara
8.Central	Kandy	Galagedera
9.Central	Nuwara Eliya	Hanguranketa
10.Uva	Badulla	Mahiyangana
11.Sabragamuwa	Kegalle	Rambukkna