Over 5,000 polls monitors

by Manjula Fernando

Over 5,000 local and international polls monitors will be deployed to observe the Provincial Council election to be conducted in three provinces next Saturday, September 21.

There are nearly 50 international observers, seven from the Commonwealth and others from the Asian region. The Elections Department has invited nearly 30 international observers representing the Commonwealth and a non-state group, the Federation of Election Management Bodies of South Asia.

The largest team of over 4,800 local observers will be deployed by PAFFREL which has been accredited by the Elections Department along with the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) to have observers in the polling stations on election day.

A spokesman for the Elections Department said there were 4,358,263 eligible voters in the Central, Northern and North Western provinces.

The number of eligible voters in the Northern Province according to the 2012 electoral register is 714,488. There were also voters registered under the displaced category.

The poll will be conducted from 7.00 am to 4.00pm in 832 polling stations in the North, 1,571 in the Central Province and 1,309 in the North Western Province. Counting will begin shortly after the close of the poll at 377 counting centres. Postal voting for the PC elections was held on September 9 and 10.