COLOMBO, 24 September 2005 — Voters living in Sri Lanka’s rebel-held northeast will be driven by bus to government-controlled areas to vote in the upcoming presidential election and special measures will be taken to prevent the names of tsunami victims being used to cast bogus ballots, an official said yesterday.
Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said he couldn’t provide security at polling stations in areas held by the Tamil Tiger rebels because under a cease-fire agreement, armed government forces are not allowed to enter their territory.
“Since security in these areas is a question for me ... I have decided to extend the facility of transport for voters in those (rebel-controlled) areas to assure their fundamental rights of expression,” Dissanayake told reporters, at the first briefing since the Nov. 17 poll was announced.
He also said special arrangements have been made for those displaced by the Dec. 26 tsunami that killed at least 31,000 Sri Lankans and displaced some 90,000.
The letter “D” will be marked on the register against the names of those believed to have died in the disaster, Dissanayake said.
Citizens wrongly presumed dead will be allowed to cast their votes after proving their identities.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the election must be held this year — ending months of controversy over when President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s second term ends. The constitution limits her to two six-year terms, but she had argued that she should be able to serve until next year because the previous elections were called early.
International and local election observers said after the last general election in 2004 that polling in some areas of the north and east, controlled by the guerillas, was wrought with violence and fraud.
Dissanayake said he was prepared to take tough action in areas where there is evidence of vote rigging or ballot stuffing.
“I will not hesitate to annul a poll where disturbances are taking place,” he said. If needed, a repeat vote would be held on Nov. 19.
Despite isolated incidents of voter intimidation and ballot-rigging, last year’s vote was seen as one of the most peaceful in a decade, partly because of Dissanayake’s new power to call fresh elections.
Some 13.3 million people over the age of 18 are expected to vote in the November poll, a race between the ruling party candidate Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The Tigers have yet to announce which candidate they will support, although the vote is already being seen as a referendum on whether the government should continue a Norway-brokered peace deal with the rebels.
It was on Wickremesinghe’s watch as prime minister that the peace deal was signed. Rajapakse has been courting support from other hard-line nationalist parties with promises of revisiting the peace process.
