Amid a close race between the two leading contenders to be Sri Lankas’s next President, election monitors are increasingly concerned that Tamil paramilitaries in the Northeast could affect the outcome of the November 17 polls.
Although there are thirteen candidates entered, the two leading contenders by far are main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse.
Although the Tamil Tigers have said they will remain neutral and detached from the elections to elect a successor to President Chandrika Kumaratunga, political analysts expect Tamil voters and other minority community voters to back Wickremesinghe, who signed a ceasefire with the LTTE and held several rounds of talks with the Tigers.
The chief EU election monitor, John Cushnahan, says he is worried there could be trouble in eastern areas where the Karuna Group, named after the renegade LTTE commander who lead it, is operating under the aegis of the Army.
And reporters in the garrison town of Jaffna say the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), which has a history of electoral fraud, is campaigning for Rajapakse, ironically the Sinhala nationalists’ candidate of choice.
‘What has happened in previous elections is that there was serious malpractice in a number of areas, but it wasn’t enough to affect the overall result,’ Cushnahan told Reuters.
‘[But] in a very close run presidential contest, it could make a very significant difference.’
In previous years, government forces had set up checkpoints to slow the movement of voters from ethnic Tamil areas in the north and east to polling stations, Cushnahan said, adding LTTE pressure had reduced the vote for Tamil parties opposed to it.
On November 17 there would be no polling in LTTE-held areas and government-sponsored buses will be deployed to bring voters in those areas to cast their votes at polling booths set up across the front line in Army-held areas, officials said.
‘I’m worried what will happen in the north and east. There’s been a lot of speculation over what Karuna will do,’ Cushnahan said referring to a former Tiger commander who defected to the Army after his rebellion against the LTTE leadership was crushed.
Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake says he will not hesitate to cancel voting in the North and East if any irregularities are reported.
‘If the numbers of cast votes are not tallying with the number of registered voters in specific locations in the North and East, I would definitely stop the counting of those votes in the respective polling center,’ Mr. Dissanayake said.
Dissanayake says he will hold a re-run in affected areas two days later. Cushnahan said the EU was ready to monitor this too.
The EU, one of Sri Lanka’s leading donors, has said that it will send 72 experts to join observers from Asia, the Commonwealth, and around 33,000 local officials in monitoring the election in the violence-prone island.
‘It is crucial for the peace process in Sri Lanka that forthcoming elections are seen as credible by all communities,’ EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.
Although there are thirteen candidates entered, the two leading contenders by far are main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse.
Although the Tamil Tigers have said they will remain neutral and detached from the elections to elect a successor to President Chandrika Kumaratunga, political analysts expect Tamil voters and other minority community voters to back Wickremesinghe, who signed a ceasefire with the LTTE and held several rounds of talks with the Tigers.
The chief EU election monitor, John Cushnahan, says he is worried there could be trouble in eastern areas where the Karuna Group, named after the renegade LTTE commander who lead it, is operating under the aegis of the Army.
And reporters in the garrison town of Jaffna say the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), which has a history of electoral fraud, is campaigning for Rajapakse, ironically the Sinhala nationalists’ candidate of choice.
‘What has happened in previous elections is that there was serious malpractice in a number of areas, but it wasn’t enough to affect the overall result,’ Cushnahan told Reuters.
‘[But] in a very close run presidential contest, it could make a very significant difference.’
In previous years, government forces had set up checkpoints to slow the movement of voters from ethnic Tamil areas in the north and east to polling stations, Cushnahan said, adding LTTE pressure had reduced the vote for Tamil parties opposed to it.
On November 17 there would be no polling in LTTE-held areas and government-sponsored buses will be deployed to bring voters in those areas to cast their votes at polling booths set up across the front line in Army-held areas, officials said.
‘I’m worried what will happen in the north and east. There’s been a lot of speculation over what Karuna will do,’ Cushnahan said referring to a former Tiger commander who defected to the Army after his rebellion against the LTTE leadership was crushed.
Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake says he will not hesitate to cancel voting in the North and East if any irregularities are reported.
‘If the numbers of cast votes are not tallying with the number of registered voters in specific locations in the North and East, I would definitely stop the counting of those votes in the respective polling center,’ Mr. Dissanayake said.
Dissanayake says he will hold a re-run in affected areas two days later. Cushnahan said the EU was ready to monitor this too.
The EU, one of Sri Lanka’s leading donors, has said that it will send 72 experts to join observers from Asia, the Commonwealth, and around 33,000 local officials in monitoring the election in the violence-prone island.
‘It is crucial for the peace process in Sri Lanka that forthcoming elections are seen as credible by all communities,’ EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.
