Postal voting begins amid reports of increased violence

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2008, 03:43 GMT]
Two-day postal voting began Thursday in the North Central Province (NCP) and Sabragamuwa Province (SP) for the two provincial council elections scheduled to be held on August 23, amid reports of the increase of election related violence, sources said. Sri Lanka Police is providing tight security to all government offices in the two provinces. The postal voting will continue till Friday.



Meanwhile, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) said Thursday morning that it has received 101 complaints including 65 election related violence. Others are mainly violations of election laws during electioneering, including the use of state properties and vehicles for propaganda work by the ruling party supporters.

Keerthi Tennekone, CaFFE spokesman, told media that most of election related violence have been reported from Anuradhapura district in the north central province where Major General (retd) Janaka Perera is leading the main opposition United national Party (UNP) as its chief ministerial candidate.

Pitted against Janaka Perera is Berty Premalal Dissanayake, former chief minister from the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA).