CMEV has recorded a total of 60 incidents of election related violence and malpractice on Polling Day (24th April 2004) in the North Western Provincial Council Election. Of these 60 Incidents, 29 were recorded in the Kurunegala District and 31 in the Puttalam District.

CMEV deployed 429 Monitors. They monitored 65% or 787 of the 1204 total number of Polling Centres.

Kurunegala
Of the 29 Incidents, the UPFA was identified as the Alleged Perpetrator in 16 and the UNF in 06. The majority of incidents were recorded in the Galgamuwa Polling Division (09) and the Katugampola Polling Division (07).

Puttalam
Of the 31 Incidents, the UPFA has been identified as the Alleged Perpetrator in 14 Incidents and the UNF in 05. The majority of Incidents occurred in the Chilaw Polling Division (10), Puttalam (09) and Anamaduwa (08).

There was an attempt by approximately 50 supporters of UNF candidate Abeysekera Shantha Sisira Kumarage to forcibly enter Polling Centre No 15 in the Chilaw Polling Division – Karukkupane Tamil Junior School. The attempt was foiled by the Police. In another Polling Centre in the Chilaw Polling Division – No 16- Kottapitiya Government Sinhala School, 03 Police Officers were threatened by approximately 30 supporters of UPFA candidate K.Sanath Nishantha Perera. Mr Perera is reported to have been present at the time of the incident.

Also in the Puttalam District, the location of Polling Centres 70 and 71 - Eluwankulama Muslim Vidyalaya Hall Nos 1&2 - and transport difficulties effectively disenfranchised 218 voters.

Overall, the election was largely incident free and conducted peacefully. In this respect the trend set in the General Election continued. However, voter turn out was considerably lower.

CMEV was formed in 1997 by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), the Free Media Movement (FMM) and the Coalition against Political Violence as an independent and non-partisan organization to monitor the incidence of election related violence.

Dr. P. Saravanamuttu Co-Convenor	Sunila Abeysekera Co-Convenor	Sundanda Deshapriya Co-Convenor