News
Phone ban at polling stations adhered to in the breach
View(s):By Tharushi Weerasinghe
Voters were left inconvenienced and confused when the prohibition of phones at polling centres was not strictly followed or enforced by officials yesterday.
Despite stern warnings by both the Election Commission and Sri Lanka Police, voters from many areas claimed the rule was openly flouted while strictly implemented in some centres.
“I was able to keep my phone with me the whole time because no one checked and I saw people using their phones quite openly while waiting in line,” said a 27-year-old from Negombo.
At some polling booths, arrangements had been made for voters to leave their mobile phones and bags
He added that he even managed to take a photo of the line to share on a WhatsApp group of his friends with the caption “Remember to vote today!” “If the rule was not going to be enforced I feel like it should not have been announced at all because a lot of voters, especially the elderly and people with disabilities will be unnecessarily inconvenienced.”
“I can’t call or book a vehicle to pick me up so I am hoping I’ll be able to stop a trishaw from the road to go home in,” said another 62-year-old at a polling centre in Gothatuwa.
The retired daycare worker told the Sunday Times that her daughter, who now lives in another electoral division with her husband, usually books her a cab through an app. She said walking was harder because of her age now.
Another young voter who was accompanying her grandfather who required a wheelchair expressed annoyance at the rule – “it isn’t like Sri Lankan roads are wheelchair friendly and parking is always some distance from the centre so this is very inconvenient, especially since I can’t leave my grandad here and go get the car.”
“I didn’t see the point of the rule in the first place because the phone is completely irrelevant to the act of just going into the box and crossing out the ballot paper and walking out,” noted Sahan Dharmasena, a 25-year-old law student. Sahan, who lives a kilometre from his polling centre in Moratuwa and usually walks there with his family, said the phone never added to the quality of his voting experience, so the rule didn’t take anything away either.
Another point raised by a first-time voter was that posts and selfies with the purple pinky finger have a “trend effect.” “Young people my age, especially Gen Z voters will inadvertently encourage other young people to consider voting when they see others do it on social media,” said 19-year-old Samanali Watagoda. She noticed the #purplepinky tag trending on Instagram and felt that sharing her voting experience while respecting safety and privacy laws could have encouraged other young people who are anxious about the process to go vote as well.
A resident from Ambalangoda said that they had to keep their phones on an open desk outside the booth and go in for voting. “It was at high risk that we kept the phones there and I was concentrating more on my phone than voting,” he said.
Election Commission Chairman R. M. A. L. Ratnayake said that the restrictions on taking phones to booth was going to be strictly enforced.
Defending the decision, he said that during the postal vote, some public officials had photographed their ballot papers and published them on social media.
However Election Commissioner General Saman Shri Ratnayake told the Sunday Times on Friday night that they would not strictly enforce the ban on phones.
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