SLA defacing election posters - Tamil groups

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Representatives of the Tamil groups fighting local government elections in Jaffna met officers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna, to lodge complaints about the military defacing election posters and other problems, said sources in Jaffna.

The Tamil representatives met Colonel Jayawardena and Colonel Weeratunga of the 51-2 brigade and complained that the army personnel had defaced their posters with black paint in Jaffna.

A large forty foot high hoarding erected by the EPDP in front of the Poobalasingham bookshop in the Jaffna town was also completely defaced with black paint Wednesday night said sources.

The EPDP had put up the hoarding at a great cost they said.

The Tamil political parties complain that the security forces are sticking to the local government election law to the letter in this case. The law forbids the display of campaign posters and hoarding during local polls.

They point out that the law was completely ignored in southern Sri Lanka when local government elections were held there in March last year.

They also wanted the proposal to cluster election booths at the Valvai Girls' School in Valvettithurai (VVT), to be changed so that another booth could be set up at the Sivakuru Viththiyalayam near the Kali Kovil (tempel) area in VVT.

This is because residents in certain parts of VVT will find it difficult to go to Valvai Girls' School to vote they said.

The Tamil parties have regularly met military top brass to iron out their problems relating to the camaign.