Election commissioner in legal trouble over language issue

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 March 2008, 01:11 GMT]
The Supreme Court Friday directed the Attorney General to obtain statement from the Commissioner of Elections regarding the failure of publishing the voters register in Tamil language, for consideration during the March 17 hearing of Fundamental Rights violation petition filed by the Ceylon Workers United Front (CWUF), legal sources in Colombo said.

The FR petition filed by the CWUF came up for further submission Friday. Lawyers of the Human Rights House appeared in support of the petition. The Commissioner of Elections and a few government officials have been cited as respondents in the petition, legal sources said.

The petitioner has begged the court to order the Commissioner of Election to publish and exhibit Tamil version of the voters register, especially in Nuwara Eliya district where majority of population are plantation Tamils.

The petition has stated that the Commissioner of Elections has violated the Language Rights enshrined in the constitution.

Plantation Tamils are undergoing untold hardships due to the failure of this, the petition says.