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| Sunday, 17 March 2002 |
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6,000 service personnel for polls duty by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE Around 6,000 service personnel will be mobilised throughout the country during the forthcoming local government elections scheduled for March 20 and they will remain on standby duty to deal with any post- election violence, until they are called back. In addition, nearly 40,000 policemen will be deployed for election duty, police sources told the Sunday Observer'. The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) of the Police Election Secretariat, Gamini Navaratne, said that except for a murder in Galle last Thursday, there were no other major polls-related incidents reported from elsewhere. Meanwhile 346 incidents have been reported from several police stations. The number of complaints made by the following political parties:- PA 103, UNF 149, JVP 79, SLMC 8, EPDP 1. The highest number of complains, 44, were received from Gampaha and 31 from Chillaw as against 300 last December, 29 from Anuradhapura, 27 each from Negombo and Ratnapura respectively. Police Election Secretariat Director, T. Miskin, said that the local government polls campaign was relatively peaceful when compared to that of the last general election. The local government polls is scheduled for March 20 with about 12.4 million people expected to vote to elect members for 18 municipal councils, 36 urban councils and 257 pradesiya sabhas in the country. Altogether there are 309 local government bodies including those in the North and East. The Deputy Commissioner (Elections) M.C. Arunthavachelvam, said that the local government polls will be held on March 20 except in the North-East, where it will be held on March 25. Meanwhile, nominations for 20 local government bodies which were rejected by the Returning Officers for irregularities, have filed appeals before the Court of Appeal. It is learnt that 6 of the 20 appeals have already been ruled by the Court of Appeal while the rest are still pending. After the court ruling on these appeals, the Commissioner of Elections will decide on the date of elections for these bodies. The 20 local government bodies are:- Mihintale predehiya sabhava, Tirappene pradesiya sabhva, Galle municipal council, Ambagamuwa pradesiya sabhava, Akuressa pradesiya sabhava, Tangalle urban council, Katunayake-Seeduwa urban council, Nathandiya pradesiya sabhava, Ratnapura municipal council, Peliyagoda urban council, Nindaavur pradesiya sabhava, Thirukkkovil pradesiya sabhava, Kesbewa pradesiya sabhava, Kalutara pradesiya sahbava, , Hali-Ela pradesiya sabhava, Panadura urban council, Moneragalle pradesiya sabhava, Buttala pradesiya sabhava, Ratnapura pradesiya sabhava and the Colombo municipal council. |
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