Of the 29 complaints of incidents of election violence on 24th February 2004 - the closing day of nominations for the April 2004 general election - recorded by CMEV, the most serious is that which occurred in the Galle district. This incident involved supporters of the UNF and the UPFA and resulted in 09 persons being hospitalized. Other incidents have occurred in the Colombo (02), Gampaha (02), Kandy (06), Kurunegala (04), Anuradhapura (01), Polonnaruwa (01), Hambantota (01), Badulla (01), Moneragala (02), Ratnapura (02), Kegalle (05) and Trincomalee (01) districts. Of the incidents of violence recorded, CMEV has identified 08 incidents as falling into the category of Major Incidents- Hurt (03), Assault (3) and Threat and Intimidation (2).

CMEV notes with concern the geographic spread of these incidents and that they all involve the two major political formations – the UNF and the UPFA. CMEV records of past election violence clearly demonstrate that the two major parties are responsible for the bulk of violence perpetrated. In the last general election campaign (December 2001), the PA and the UNP were together responsible for 76% of the total number of incidents of election violence.

CMEV calls upon the two main parties to acknowledge their primary responsibility in this regard and to take effective action to prevent a repetition of this pattern of electoral violence.

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 organisation to monitor the incidence of election related violence.

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