A cleaner election

Confidence in Department of Elections high, say int'l poll observers:

As Sri Lanka prepares to elect 196 legislators to the island's Parliament tomorrow (17), international poll observers on Saturday gave a relatively positive report card, claiming, "Sri Lankan elections are far from violent."

Head, Asian Network for Free Election, Damaso Magbual, who is here to observe the general election, as part of the PAFFREL team, told the Sunday Observer that elections are construed as being violent, only when the acts of violence like assaults and intimidation have a bearing on the election result.

"So far, your elections have remained peaceful and orderly," said Magbual who is on his third election monitoring mission in Sri Lanka.

"In 1998, I saw bodies floating in the Mekong River. That is violence," he said, pointing out that Sri Lanka has not seen violent elections in the recent history, which was a blessing.

Echoing these sentiments, chairman of the Commonwealth Observer, former President of Malta, Dr. George Abela, told a media briefing that everything was on the right track so far and his team was 'cautiously optimistic' of the democratic process.

Responding to a Sunday Observer question as to whether he felt Sri Lanka was still in need of foreign observers to attest the elections, he said: "We are quite happy that Sri Lanka has come a long way after the war and it is now very well placed to hold a democratic and peaceful election," adding, "The general attitude all around is that this is a cleaner election."

He said there seem to be confidence in the Department of Elections and the general atmosphere was conducive to a democratic election.

The Commonwealth observer team comprises two long-term observers and nine expert members. The expert team, which arrived in the country on August 10, will cover five provinces, Central, North, North Central, North Western and Western.

Drawn from across the Commonwealth, the nine-member group includes a former Election Commissioner, Members of Parliament, and representatives of civil society, media and the academia.

Dr. Abela said, his team was there on individual capacity and did not represent the views of member governments or organizations.

"We will see if there has been a level playing field throughout, if the voters had freedom to cast their vote, whether the elections were conducted in accordance with democratic electioneering standards, including its own Constitution," he explained.

A Commonwealth observer group was present at the last presidential election as well.

Dr. Abela said, they were here to observe the process as a whole and to form their own judgment. Since their arrival, the team members have met with the Commissioner of Elections and different political party representatives. "The discussions will remain confidential but by and large, all parties seem to be in agreement that this election is running in the right direction," he said.

The Commonwealth team will issue an interim report shortly after the election, followed by their final report to the Elections Commissioner. It will be issued to the political parties and the Commonwealth governments before the public issue.

Apart from the Commonwealth, the European Union has deployed an 85-member observer team comprising18 long-term observers and 28 short-term observers. They will also issue their interim report shortly after the election.

The Elections Commissioner has also invited a 30-member team from the Federation of Election Monitoring Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) to observe and report the conduct of the polls.

The local polls watchdogs PAFFREL, CMEV, CAFFE, Transparency International Sri Lanka and several others have deployed over 20,000 local observers to report on election law violations.

PAFFREL and CMEV will also have static observers covering all 12,314 polling stations on August 17 in addition to mobile teams and international monitors.