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Thousands stripped of voting rights
By N.Dilshath Banu
Thousands of people in various parts of the country, but especially Colombo, were denied their voting rights at Thursday’s presidential election when they found their names had been left out of the voters’ list though their names had been sent to the gramasevakas in time, a polls monitoring group said.
Voters in Gamapaha, Galle, Puttalam, Colombo, Batticaloa, Kandy and other areas said they had gone to the polling booths assuming their names were on the list but were turned back.

Election analysts said that it was also a mystery as to how the number of registered voters had dropped in many of the polling divisions in the Colombo district. Compared to the 2003 electoral register which was used in the last parliamentary elections, the 2004 register used in Thursday’s presidential election shows that the Colombo Central polling division had lost 8,847 votes – the biggest drop. Also recording drops in voter population were Borella, Colombo North, Colombo East, Colombo West, Dehiwela, Kotte, Ratmalana and Moratuwa polling divisions.

All the other polling divisions in the country had recorded a natural increase. For instance Kaduwela recorded an increase of 4,791 and Homagama 6,732.
Kingsley Rodrigo, head of the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections, one of the main polls monitoring groups, said that by yesterday some 5,000 people in the Colombo district alone had complained to the monitors that they were stripped of their voting rights.

Disappointed residents said they had registered in time but had not received their poll cards. They went to the polling booth on Thursday with their national identity card, but they were denied the right to exercise their franchise.
Underlying the magnitude of this crisis, a woman voter said she was living at Union Place at Kompannaveediya since 1959 and this was the first time her name was arbitrarily struck off the list.

For Mrs A. Ratnayake from Nugegoda, the situation was worse. She said she and her daughter did receive the poll cards but when they went to the booth, they were told they could not vote as their names were not on the list.
Some of these voters who were stripped of their rights have sent a petition to the Commissioner of Elections.

The PAFFREL chief said that in future, voters should get a receipt from the gramasevaka when handing over their registration forms.

He said the PAFFREL also would pursue the matter with election officials.
In response, polls chief Dayananda Dissanayake said the people should check with the District Secretariat whether their names were on the voters’ list which was displayed every December.

However, he did not comment on why people who received polling cards found that their names were not on the list.

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