Foreign teams to observe polls

by Manjula Fernando

Teams from three international bodies, the European Union, the Commonwealth and Federation of Election Monitoring Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) will send missions to observe the forthcoming parliamentary election, Deputy Elections Commissioner M.M. Mohamed told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

He said the EU and the Commonwealth have already confirmed their participation in the observation activities while confirmation from FEMBoSA is expected shortly. The EU will deploy a 50-strong team to cover the pre-poll, post poll and election day. The FEMBoSA team will be sponsored by the Elections Commission while the Commonwealth and the EU teams will be funded by their respective organisations.

The Deputy Commissioner said since Sri Lanka’s election laws lack legal backing to permit monitoring by local or foreign observers, the teams can only gather information and make an informed judgement without interferring in the process.

If the monitoring is supported by law these monitors can intervene when there is a breach of the law.

He said six local bodies including PAFFREL, CMEV, CAFFE and Transparency International of Sri Lanka will be permitted by the Elections Commissioner to observe the forth coming election. Only the CMEV and PAFFREL will be permitted static observers within the polling stations.

A spokesperson for the CMEV said they would deploy over 4,500 observers for election duty covering the postal voting on August 3, 5 and 6. PAFFREL will deploy 15,000 observers. A release from the EU said it has signed a project with Transparency international to educate voters through community based organisations and observe the election. The project which will continue for 18 months will cost Euro 1.2 million.

The Transparency International of Sri Lanka (TISL) will launch a project, tomorrow, July 13 to monitor misuse of public property.