The Commissioner was addressing political party secretaries met him for a second round of talks at his invitation at the Elections Secretariat at Rajagiriya on Friday.
Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya expressed the view that there is no necessity to invite foreign observers to monitor the PC poll campaign in the Eastern Province, as requested by the TNA and UNP. In case a necessity arises during the final stages of the campaign, he could get down observers from SAARC countries.
The Commissioner was addressing political party secretaries met him for a second round of talks at his invitation at the Elections Secretariat at Rajagiriya on Friday.
The Commissioner came in for praise from the secretaries and the local monitors, PAFFREL and CAFFE who were present at the meeting for having made facilities for any registered voter to check whether his/her name was in the Electoral Register for 2011 by accessing the official website www.slelections.gov.lk and inserting the NIC number to ascertain registration.Deshapriya said that before he decided on whether to invite foreign observers or not, he will be sending a team of senior election officials comprising Deputy Commissioner M. M. Mohamed, Bandula Kulatunga, a senior SLAS officer who is a consultant to the Elections Secretariat and several others to tour the Batticaloa district.
They are expected to find out at the grass root level whether there is a necessity to get down foreign observers and report back to the Commissioner within a week, Executive Director of PAFFREL, Rohana Hettiarachchi said yesterday.
At Friday‘s meeting, UPFA General Secretary Minister Susil Premajayanth, UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, ITAK General Secretary (TNA) parliamentarian Mavai Senathirajah, People’s Liberation Front (JVP) parliamentarian Sunil Handunnetti and several others were presen .
Following representations made to the Commissioner by the local monitors as well as some of the political party secretaries that there was room for irregularities and fraudulent acts when members of the Civil Defense Force around 30,000 or more from the Anuradhapura district come to certify there postal votes, Deshapriya assured that he will be appointing two presiding officials to every center where postal votes would be marked to ensure there was no fraud.
(Island)