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| Sunday, 14 March 2004 |
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Politics |  |
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Meets services chiefs, IGP Polls chief decides NE balloting tomorrow by Ananth Palakidnar Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake will meet the Service Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police tomorrow to make a final decision on conducting polls in areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the North and the East. According to informed sources the polls chief was expected to meet the Government Agents from the electoral districts in the North and the East yesterday to discuss with them in detail the current situation in the regions and the possibility of setting up polling booths for the voters from LTTE controlled areas . Informed sources said that there were fourteen exit points in LTTE held areas which voters could use to reach polling booths. But during previous polls, only 4,200 had been able to obtain clearance for voting from those exit points. According to sources more than 120,000 of the 260,000 persons living in LTTE controlled areas are eligible for voting. The polls chief is said to be giving serious consideration to providing an opportunity for these voters to take part in the forthcoming polls. The election department is also particular about the safety of the officials who will be serving in polling booths to be set up in uncleared areas should a decision be made to conduct polls in these areas. Meanwhile, campaign activities in some of the LTTE controlled areas in the North and the East have been restricted to Tamil National Alliance with non - TNA parties finding it difficult to make inroads into the LTTE territory, sources said. Both the Vanni headquarters of the LTTE and the Karuna faction in the East have assured that they would do their best to have a free and fair polling, once, the green light is given by the polls chief to go ahead with the voting in the LTTE held areas, sources said. |
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