Electoral
registers on computer by year end
By Shelani Perera
A program initiated by the Elections Department to computerize the
electoral register will be effected in all districts by the end
of this year, so that revisions to the electoral register which
are made annually can be expedited, a top election official said.
Although
the project got underway about eight years ago, due to lack of funds
and manpower, the Department has so far been able to complete the
program in only two districts.
However
an agreement signed by the International Forum for Election System
in Asia has come forward by providing funds which will enable the
Department to effect the program in all districts.
Deputy
Commissioner P .M. Siriwardana told The Sunday Times that once the
funds come the Department aims at completing the project in two
years.
“We have already started the ground work by assessing office
space and other technical aspects needed for the project in relevant
District and Kachcheri offices. There was no money allocated by
the Department for this project. If there was any money left at
the end of the year from the budget allocation then we would use
it for this project.
It
is with much difficulty that we started this as the Department had
only one computer programmer. This is a tedious task, but once it
is completed we can cut down on a lot of work when the revisions
on the electoral register is done”, Mr. Siriwardana said.
According
to Mr. Siriwardana generally only about 20% of names in an electoral
register has to be revised annually, but as the updating is done
manually the staff has to go through the entire list. Once the system
is installed much time would be saved”, he said.
“Some
of the names specially when they are translated to Tamil, are not
accurate but we have installed the Tamil language also in the computer
so that changes are effected automatically. Now that IDs are made
compulsory there is a check on names duplicated. The Department
also makes available the voters register for political parties.
Now we will be able to have it on CD, so only limited storing facilities
would be necessary,” Mr. Siriwardana said.
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