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Lowest turnout in Sabaragamuwa Province
Of the three provinces that went to the polls yesterday, the Sabaragamuwa Province comprising the Ratnapura and Kegalle districts recorded the lowest voter turnout.In Ratnapura, the city of gems, voters showed little enthusiasm for the provincial council election that was held yesterday, with a general sense of apathy noticed from the public.
“When we sealed the ballot boxes in the morning around 6.30 not a single party representative or polls observer was present, but this not the case at the general or Presidential election,” a police officer on election duty at Sri Saddharmalankara Pirivena polling station said, highlighting the lack of interest in the poll.
Just one person at this voting centre in Ratnapura. Pic by Indika Handuwala
There was almost a total absence of people queuing up to vote and instead what were witnessed were people trickling in between 7 a.m and 4 p.m.Police providing security to the centres said people did not have wait in line to vote. “We did not have to control crowds this time like in the other elections,” one officer said.
Pushpakumara Dissanayake, JVP Ratnapura District leader said the reason for the poor polling was the loss of people’s faith in politicians and in the provincial council system itself. “This is what is reflected in the voter turnout,” he said.
He said at the 2008 provincial elections people were eager to vote as they wanted a change to take place in the development of the country and also wanted the war to end.
Things are still the same expect for the fact that the war has ended, he said.At most polling stations in Ratnapura, the voter turnout was less than 40 per cent. Batugedara Maha Vidyalaya is another centre where the turnout was nearly 40% with about 500 of the 1250 registered voters casting their ballots, officials there said.
According to the Police there were no incidents recorded at these centres and hardly any crowd could be seen near the centres.
In Kegalle, three polling booths at Avissawella had a low turnout with around 35% voters casting their votes by midday. Mihinnara, Nagoda and Wellangalle are the three areas that witnessed a low percentage of votes though the number of registered voters was 1301, 1400 and 1913 respectively.
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