Sri Lanka’s Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake has given consent to deploy two observers at the Elections Secretariat in Rajagiriya in Colombo and two each at the all District Secretaries where District Returning Officers are located to monitor their movement and activities on the polling day on the forthcoming general election. Accordingly, two monitors, one from PAFFREL and the other from CMEV will be allowed to stay at the Elections Secretariat in Colombo and at all the District Secretariats, election department sources said.
This dramatic decision has been taken by the Commissioner of Elections following reports and rumours that in the last presidential election the Commissioner himself was held under house arrest on the polling day allegedly by supporters of the ruling party and alleged manipulation of election results by computer fraud.
This is the first time in the history of the Elections Department that monitors are to be appointed to watch the activities and the movements of the Elections Commissioner and his twenty-two District Returning Officers manning their electoral district secretariats on the polling day, local monitoring group sources said.
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