PC elections...

The government dissolved the three PCs on June 6. The nominations closed on July 19. The three provinces had 100,818 postal voters with the voting held on August 27 and 28.

Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya has urged all political parties and independent groups to desist from any kind of electioneering or election-related publicity from 12.00 midnight today on print or electronic media.

Deputy elections Commissioner R.M.A.L. Ratnayaka said some 35,000 officers had been deployed for election duty and another 15,000 for the counting of votes. The police will deploy some 21,000 personnel to maintain law and order while the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) will deploy 1,500 monitors and the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) 1,650 election monitors.

The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) which held office in all three PCs asked voters to place their confidence on the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. It asked voters to send a strong message to the international community and the Tamil Diaspora that Sri Lankans trusted the government and its programme of development, rehabilitation, reconstruction and reconciliation.

Meanwhile the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) campaigned for a change in administration in the three PCs leading to a regime change. They campaigned on a platform for ending corruption, waste, high cost of living and the repeated blunders in the local and foreign spheres.

An election monitor said a significant feature of this election was the racially biased propaganda campaign carried out by all political parties in the eastern province.

The election monitors – PAFFREL, Network for Election Monitoring (NEM IHR) and CaFFE said there were no reports of serious crimes but the blatant misuse of state resources by UPFA candidates.

They singled out UPFA candidates in the North-Central Province as those mainly responsible for the violation of election law.