Cluster voting booths to be installed in resettlement areas in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2009, 03:17 GMT]
Cluster voting booths in the forthcoming presidential election are to be installed in Karaichchi and Poonakari areas where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) had been resettled, Jaffna Assistant Election Commissioner (AEO), S. Suthakar said. Meanwhile, provisions have been made to enable IDP voters who had lost their identification documents due to the war, he further said.

Arrangements have been also made for IDPs from Pachchialaippa’l’li and Pazhai areas where resettlement had not commenced to vote in the cluster booths in Vavuniyaa camps, according to the AEO.

There are 7,21,359 eligible voters in Jaffna district and 90,511 in Ki’linochchi district in Jaffna Electorate.

624 voting booths had been erected in the last presidential elections and 95 of these have to be located in Ki’linochchi district. The number of the booths will be increased if necessary.

Polling Cards for voters in Jaffna Electorate prepared in Jaffna during former elections are now being prepared in Colombo using data compiled in computer.

Many who had lost their identification documents during the war can now vote presenting one of the following six documents: National Identity Card, Passport, Driving Licence, Pension Card, Elders IC and IC for religious priests.

Besides, Election Department will issue special identity cards for voting and the Department of Registration of Persons will issue temporary identity cards for voting, for those do not have any of the six identification documents.

More than 7,000 government officers are to be engaged in the forthcoming presidential election and 125 officers from South are to be brought to Jaffna to serve in election activities, AEO Suthakar said.

There had been accusations raised against engaging officers from the South in Jaffna during the last presidential election.