2008 register - basis for poll:

Re-registration not necessary:

All IDPs eligible to vote

by P. Krishnaswamy

Recent news reports in some sections of the media that about one million IDPs of the Northern Province have not been registered for voting and will be deprived of their franchise at the January 26 Presidential Poll are incorrect.

Voters whose names are already in the 2008 Electoral Register will be able to vote, Bandula Kulatunga, Consultant to the Elections Department told the Sunday Observer.

The Presidential Poll is being held on the basis of the 2008 Electoral Register and the question of registering again does not arise in the case of a large majority of IDPs, he said.

The Commissioner General for Registration of Persons and the Commissioner Elections are expeditiously handling the issue of temporary identity cards through Grama Niladharis to those who do not possess any valid documents to prove their identity at the poll. While the Department of Elections will conclude its program of issuing temporary identity cards on January 15, the Department for Registration of Persons will continue this task until January 21, Kulatunga said. Of the four NGOs that are to moniter the Presidential polls, the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections and the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence have been permitted to observe from inside the polling stations while the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections and the Network for Election Monitoring have been permitted to observe from outside, he said.

Officials of the Elections Department have been designated to coordinate the process of installing polling booths, special polling booths and cluster polling booths for the IDPs and also to expedite the issue of temporary identity cards.

Last week they visited IDP villages and other places where people have been resettled and held discussions in Mannar, Vavuniya and Jaffna with the respective Returning Officers (ROs), Assistant Returning Officers (AROs), Assistant Commissioners of Elections (ACEs) and officials of the Government Secretariats. Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake will hold a meeting shortly to review the situation, the sources said.

Mannar GA Nicholas Pillai told the Sunday Observer that in his district, where a considerable number of IDPs have already been resettled, maximum facilities will be provided for the voters to cast their votes. More polling booths than at the last elections will be installed for the Presidential Poll, he said.

The ACE for Vanni A.S.Karunanidhi said the number of registered voters in the Vavuniya Polling District is 112,924 according to the 2008 Voters Register, 68,729 in the Mullaitivu Polling District and 65,322 in the Mannar Polling District.

These were figures updated annually on information furnished by Grama Niladharis, with inclusion of details of youths who had reached 18 and deletion of the names of the dead.

After obtaining special permission from the Commissioner of Elections, the Voters Register for Mullaitivu Polling District was updated annually from 2003, he said.

The number of voters in 2003 was 53,547 and the register was progressively updated and the number in 2008 was 68,729, Karunanidhi said.

The ACE for Jaffna P.Guhanathan said that the number of registered voters in the Jaffna Polling District is 630,548 according to the 2008 Electoral Register and the number in the Kilinochchi Polling District is 90,811.

Polling booths are being installed in Vavuniya Town and in the vicinity of the Menik Farm and other welfare villages for the IDPs to vote.

Free transport facilities will also be provided, where necessary, for the IDPs, sources said.