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Diplomats join polls observers in monitoring general elections
View(s):For the first time in Parliamentary elections some 20-plus senior Colombo-based diplomats will join 180 foreign elections observers during tomorrow’s polls, polls monitors said. They said the diplomats have been drawn from the European Union (EU) missions in the country and they have been mandated to assist their foreign counterparts.
Among the EU countries that maintain embassies in the country are Britain, Italy, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and France. The diplomats will also be permitted to enter polling booths and even counting centres purely in the capacity of independent observers, they said. “The diplomats and the other foreign observers have a limited role and are not permitted to interfere in any manner although they could make their comments through the office of the Elections Commissioner,” Keerthi Tennakoon with the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) told the Sunday Times.
He added that in the previous local elections many foreign diplomats are known to have carried out their independent monitoring. “However this time around they have been officially drawn into the program”, Mr. Tennakoon said.
Apart from the diplomats some 180 foreign observers will join an estimated 20,000 local monitors in tomorrow’s polls throughout the entire country.
The foreign monitors are from the European Union (EU), South Asian Election Monitoring Forum (SAEMF) the Asian Election Monitoring Forum (AEMF) and the Commonwealth Association.