Wednesday, 26th November 2014
Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya yesterday said that he expects to invite around 50 election observers to monitor the January 8 Presidential poll following the request by the opposition.
He told media yesterday that the election observers would be drawn from the Commonwealth, European Union, ANFREL (Asian Network for Free Elections) and the SAARC. “There are requests from all opposition political parties to obtain the services of foreign observers to monitor the Presidential Election. I do not intend to invite the UN for election observation as it sends officials from immature democracy like East Timor,” he said.
Mr. Deshapriya added that foreign election observers have made negative remarks on the elections in Sri Lanka, but stopped short of saying that there was no free and fair election in the country.
A total of 15,044,490 voters are eligible to vote at the January 8 election. No voter would be allowed to vote unless he/she has a valid proof of identity acceptable by the elections department. The 2014 electoral register will be used for this election. The National Identity Card (NIC), valid passport and/ or a driving licence, senior citizens’ID card, Pensioners’ ID card, ID cards issued to the clergy and temporary ID card issued by the elections department are accepted as valid identifications to vote. Estate workers who do not have ID cards must apply to the Divisional Secretariat through their respective Estate Superintendents with two photographs certified by the Grama Niladari.
The postal voting will be held on December 23 and 24 and applications will be accepted from November 11 to December 4. No application will be accepted after December 4. Postal voting is to be certified on December 13. The postal voters’ polling cards are to be posted on December 20 and special mail delivery will be carried out on December 25 and 28.
Mr. Deshapriya said that the Elections Department has decided to mark the names on the electoral register of those who are abroad, deceased and eligible for postal voting to prevent impersonation at polling, and admitted that there are about one million voters without valid ID.
From : http://dailymirrorepaper.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
