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Parties
want foreign monitors in N-E The party candidates made this request on Friday at a meeting with the Commissioner. The parties had informed the Commissioner that mass scale rigging was reported from these areas at the previous elections with local monitors unable to put a stop to it. A party representative told The Sunday Times that according to the reports submitted by the European Union and local monitoring bodies a large number of malpractices and rigging took place in the North and East . “We feel that the only way to prevent a repetition would be to have foreign observers to monitor the booths. Their presence will somewhat reduce such malpractices. However, the UNP objected to this by stating that this was a conspiracy by the parties to rig the polls in the South” he said. However
the polls chief said he would take all measures to conduct a free
and fair poll, by deploying foreign monitors both in the North and
East as well as the South as he has already identified the areas
prone to violence and rigging. “While deploying more than 40 foreign monitors in these areas we will also have local observers in every polling division and even in the cluster polling booths. It should be noted that every Tamil person living in these areas is not pro-LTTE. Our aim is to bring everyone into the democratic process. So we will train local people and deploy them as observers”, he said. In a letter to all contesting parties PAFFREL has raised concern and objected to moves to open party offices close to polling booths. PAFFREL said this move was a dangerous sign in the run-up to the polls and for election day, judging by the escalating number of pre-election violations. “We have brought to the notice of the parties that this move will definitely provoke violence. Anyone can put up a makeshift office near a polling booth and a rival group can burn it down. This will lead to much unrest and violence”, Mr. Rodrigo said. |
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