3785 candidates vye for 148 seats in three Provincial Councils:

Only 3.5 percent will be elected at the polls

By Manjula Fernando

A record number of 3785 candidates are vying for 148 seats in the Central, Northern and North Western Provincial Councils that will go to the polls in six days from today.

The provincial elections this year had been the cynosure of all events, since people in the North are exercising their franchise right to elect members of their choice after a lapse of over 20 years. President Mahinda Rajapaksa called for elections in the peace restored North this year.

A total of 4,358,263 voters in ten districts, Kurunegala and Puttalam in the North central - Kandy, Matale and Nuwara Eliya in the Central and Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Mannar in the Northern Province are eligible to cast their vote on September 21. According to the 2012 electoral register there are 714,488 voters in the Northern Province. The polling will be conducted from 7.00am to 4.00pm at 3712 polling centres. The Elections Department has set up 198 counting halls in the central, 82 in the North and 197 in the North Western province.

With a large number of contenders in the fray including relatives of former and sitting politicians, the Elections Commissioner, Mahinda Deshapriya has warned that results of any polling station marred by violence will be annulled immediately. A 5500 strong contingent of local and international polls observers - within the polling centres and on mobile units- the Commissioner will have the capacity to keep a close eye in all polling stations for malpractices and exercise law against any wrong doing.

The number of members to be elected for the North, Central and North Western PCs are 36, 56 and 50 respectively plus two bonus seats for each council. The highest number of candidates; 925 have been fielded in Kurunegala followed by Kandy with not less than 800 and the lowest; 91 is from Kilinochchi district followed by Mullaitivu with 104.

An Elections Secretariat senior official said Federation of Election Management Bodies of South Asia will send a 20 member observer team while there will be over seven members from the Commonwealth, arriving in batches to cover different segments of the election.

Commonwealth observers have already paid couple of visits to assess the post election phase. The SAARC observers were expected to arrive in the country on Friday or Saturday.

From among local observers only the PAFFREL and the CMEV will have access to the polling booths while three others including CaFFE have been permitted to deploy observers outside the stations.

Some of the offenses listed under the Parliamentary Elections Law which sanctions a cancellation of results in a particular polling station include inability to commence polling by 8.00am, closure of polling before 4.00pm due to violence or related situation, stuffing of ballot boxes and intimidation of voters.

The decision to annul the results of a particular centre will be taken after considering written observations from the officer in charge of the polling station, accredited observers, polling agents representing political parties, police officer in charge and Zonal Assistant Returning officer.

Meanwhile the ruling UPFA and the main opposition UNP are contesting all ten districts. The others who have fielded candidates for all districts in the three provinces are People's Liberation Front (JVP), Janasetha Peramuna, Democratic Party and Sri Lanka Labour Party.The Tamil National Alliance under the name ITAK is contesting all five districts in the Northern Province while the SLMC is contesting just three districts excluding Jaffna and Kilinochchi.

However, the TNA is not contesting the Central Province where a considerable population of estate Tamils are concentrated or the North Western province.

The SLMC is contesting Puttalam and Kurunegala in the North Western but only Kandy and Matale districts in the Central province.

PAFFREL has deployed 400 election monitors to cover the postal voting process. They will have one officer each at the 3700 odd polling centres and 175 mobile units with four members, covering the vulnerable areas.

A spokesman for the PAFFREL Sujeewa Gayanath said their monitors comprise of eight international observers representing the SAARC region.The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) will deploy 20 Field Monitors in the first week of September to cover every polling division in the province and 250 Stationary Observers and 10 Mobile Teams on Election Day in areas prone to violence.