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28,000
local monitors to help stop election malpractice
The decision of the Elections Commissioner to grant local polls monitoring groups - whose mission has been backed by the United States with a generous grant - access to polling booths has made the monitoring exercise more effective and meaningful. Of the 22,000 PAFFREL monitors, about 2000 will be deployed as mobile monitors. The mobile team will comprise eminent persons, senior citizens and the clergy from the local area, officials said. They said they would strengthen their presence in violence prone areas such as Hanguraketha, Anuradhapura, Polonnarauwa and Mawanella. The PAFFREL officials said they would be present in polling booths from the beginnig of voting at 6.30 a.m. to the end at 4 p.m., inspecting ballot boxes when they are brought to the booths and witnessing the sealing of the boxes when they are taken to counting centres. The officials said the Elections Commissioner's decision to annul the polls of an area if there was evidence to prove malpractice had given them additional responsibility as they, too, would have to give evidence. The PAFFREL, for which the upcoming polls will be its 18 monitoring exercise in its 15-year existence, has brought down about 100 international monitors, who will be deployed throughout the country, including the North and East. Officials of the Centre for Monitoring Elections Violence CMEV said they would deploy 6000 monitors throughout the country. They said they were being joined by 19 international monitors, 12 of whom would be deployed in the North and East. The CMEV will also deploy mobile teams and strengthen its presence in violence-prone areas. CMEV Director P. Saravanamuthu said that although they had increased the number of monitors, they had not changed the monitoring method. |
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