Concern over polling cards' storage

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Members of political parties contesting the local government in Jaffna protested against the decision of the postal department to keep polling cards at post offices for collection by voters.

This decision followed a complaint made by postal department authorities that they would not be able to deliver polling cards by from door to door due to the volatile security situation in Jaffna.

Political parties have protested that the scheme proposed by the Postal Department could lead to malpractices.

There is mutual supicison among the Tamil parties in the fray in Jaffna local elections that the more powerful among them could get hold of polling cards to engage in large scale impersonation.

They fear that if polling cards are not distributed from door to door they could be collected fraudulently with the aid of corrupt postal department officials or through intimidation.

It was agreed earlier, according to some parties, that the local Gramaka Sevakas would accompany post peons on their rounds to deliver polling cards.