Unprecedented voter-buying strategies observed at PC polls: CaFFE report

New voter-buying strategies in the Central and North Western Provinces (NWP) and an emergence of a new political class that ended the domination of a Jaffna Tamil elite in the North, were some of the observations found in the final report of the polls monitoring group Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE).

The report said, “Distribution of liquor, clothes, cellular phones and even three- wheelers took place, mostly through the black-money pumped into election campaigning. In the six years of election monitoring, CaFFE has not seen candidates making such significant investments in a PC election, and we believe that, one candidate in the NWP, definitely established a new record for election-spending,” the report stated.

CaFFE also stated that they received 579 complaints, the highest number of complaints it has received since it commenced operations in April 2008.

“One must also bear in mind that the election was held only in three provinces, and the fact that such a large number of electionrelated violence took place during the pre election time, gives an indication of the very uncertain atmosphere in which it was held.

It said that 35 per cent of the incidents re- ported during pre-election times were related to abuse of State property, and the results show that it made the biggest impact on voters’ minds. The monitoring body said misuse of public property emerged as a key issue in the run-up to the elections.

“On a more positive note, however, the NPC election will be considered as an election in which local election monitors and civil society organisations played a significant role in facilitating registration of voters, education and voter facilitation such as identification documents. This directly resulted in a high voter turnout at the September 21 election,” the report said.

Enthusiasm among voters, citizens of Sri Lanka and even the international community, continued to be at a high level, and the high percentage of voter turnout speaks volumes for the trust the Northern people reposed on the ballot.

“Although the misuse of public property was relatively low in the North, there was significant recruitment of Tamil youth through the Civil Defence Force (CDF,) under various pretexts. These appointments sometimes came backdated, and although they were recruited by the CDF, a significant number of new recruits were deployed as pre-school teachers and labourers. Ex-LTTE cadres were given high priority in Kilinochchi, and were given employment at numerous farms managed by the CDF,” the report states.

The highest portion of complaints received by CaFFE was on illegal election propaganda. CaFFE also had received 11 complaints on security force personnel involvement in election activities.

In the North, CaFFE observed that the majority of those elected are starkly different from the traditional Northern political figures that it is accustomed to.