2ND LEAD(Correction)

18% votes cast in JMC election by 3:30 p.m

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 August 2009, 10:51 GMT]
With only half an hour remaining to the end of voting in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, only 20% of the total of 1,00,417 eligible votes have been cast at 3:30 p.m Saturday, election officials said. The 18% votes cast are from the 70 polling centres located in Jaffna district. Only less than 60,000 polling cards had been issued to the rightful recipients prior to the election. Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has raised accusations of wide spread election malpractice particularly along the costal areas in Jaffna town.

TNA sources said that they have complained to the police regarding the malpractice and that the Election Commissioner has been informed of the election malpractice taking place.

Counting of postal votes will begin at 4:00 p.m, the election officials said.

23 members have to be elected for the JMC.