NORTH-EAST

Voters from Uncleared Areas Prevented from voting

The military denied all voters from uncleared areas in Wanni and Batticaloa access to clustered polling booths in the cleared areas.

Batticaloa

4 entry points into cleared areas in Batticaloa (i.e. Chenkalady, Vavunithivu, Kiran and Sithandy) were completely sealed. Brigadier Sarath Karunaratne, Official Military Spokesman, told CMEV that the military had received credible information that the LTTE would disrupt the polls and that entry was denied to all persons from uncleared areas from entering cleared areas to ensure free and fair elections. Assstant Elections Commissioner A.Sivabalasundaram informed CMEV that as a result of the decision taken by the military 40,000 voters from uncleared areas would be denied access to the clustered polling stations and that he had filed a report to the Election Commissioner. When CMEV contacted Brig. Anthony, commander for Batticaloa, he said that he had received instructions from the military high command to close the above entry points on the grounds that military intelligence had received reports of LTTE infiltrating the area by mingling with the voters.

Vavuniya

Our monitors have reported that at the Piramanalankulam army checkpoint has been closed. According to a rough estimate not less than 73 polling booths under the cluster system covering 40,000 people would be affected as a result.

The CMEV is alarmed by what is clearly an attempt to render ineffective the decision of the Election Commissioner to set up cluster polling stations to enable the voters in uncleared areas to exercise their franchise. We had consistently called on the Election Commissioner to ensure that the facilities necessary for the conduct of the election in the North East are not merely provided on paper to satisfy the legal requirement of islandwide General Election, but provided in fact to the fullest extent possible to ensure that the people there can exercise their right of franchise without hindrance. What we now have is not merely a hindrance but the disenfranchising of sections of the populace in the North-East who have shown their interest to cast their ballot. We also wish to emphasise that the contesting candidates had earlier been given permission to campaign in uncleared areas. It is ironic that the people who were canvassed for their votes are now being denied their basic rights to cast their vote.

We request the Election Commissioner to issue instructions to the necessary authorities to allow the people entry into cleared areas from uncleared areas. Failing which, the only option available would be to annul the polls in the clustered polling centres in Vavuniya and Batticaloa and conduct re-polling with the necessary security.

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