Sri Lanka on Friday announced measures to prevent voters impersonating the tsunami dead as well as special arrangements for those displaced by the calamity to vote in November’s presidential elections.
Elections’ Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said polling cards would be sent out to those believed to have perished in the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami but these will be specially marked to indicate the voter is dead.
The problem arose because the voter register to be used for the November 17 election had been completed before the tsunami and contained the names of thousands of people who were killed by the thunderous waves.
With the collaboration of the various local authorities, the elections commission has been able to identify many of those who had died but due to the vast numbers involved, mistakes could be made and it had been decided to send out the cards anyway.
“Even if any other voter gets a polling card indicating that the person is deceased, that person can go to the polling station, establish his or her identity and vote,” Dissanayake told reporters here.
“If we have any doubts, we will hand over the person to the police for further investigations.”
He could not say how many voters died in the disaster, but official figures show that over 31 000 people were killed and a million were displaced.
Dissanayake said special booths would be set up to accommodate the tsunami displaced as well as voters in the island’s northeast who live in areas under rebel control.
About 13,3-million men and women over the age of 18 years are eligible to vote on November 17 to elect an executive president for a six-year term.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, the ruling party candidate, has promised to overhaul the Norwegian-backed peace initiative while the main opposition candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe has vowed to resume talks with Tiger rebels.
A truce agreement between the government and the Tamil Tigers prevents the deployment of armed police to man polling booths in rebel-held areas, Dissanayake said, adding that he would arrange transport for voters to travel to other areas.
Voters in areas held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would also be allowed to freely cross front lines and enter government-held areas of the island’s northeast to cast their ballots, Dissanayake said.
The LTTE’s political wing chief SP Thamilselvan said in an interview last week that they support neither candidate and that the election had nothing to do with them.
Thamilselvan said they would neither encourage nor prevent people from voting.
The elections chief said he would deploy 100 000 public servants to staff the 18 286 polling stations across the country and the vote was expected to cost over $10-million. – AFP