Ten thousand people to return before elections - official

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Commissioner of Elections Mr. Dayananda Dissanyaka told a delegation of the EPRLF which met him yesterday that he will take steps to send home more than ten thousand people who are waiting in Vavuniya, Mannar and Colombo to travel to Jaffna.

He told the EPRLF leader Suresh Premachandran and his comrades that arrangements for sending these people back to Jaffna before the elections will soon be made and that he is in touch with the Ministries of Defence and Rehabilitation to co-ordinate and expedite the work.

He was responding to a request made by the EPRLF leader who had claimed that there is a large number of voters among thousands who are currently held up in Vavuniya, Colombo and Mannar due to logistical and security clearance problems.