Only 7000 IDPs apply for voting cards

Postal voting dates announced; Political parties to meet Elections Commissioner today to voice concerns

By Uditha Jayasinghe

The unavailability of updated voter lists is playing havoc once again as election officials struggle to compile comprehensive voter lists of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) for the upcoming of Jaffna and Vavuniya polls.
The Elections Commission yesterday said that only 7000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) have applied for polling cards to vote in the upcoming Jaffna Municipal Council while none have been given for Vavuniya. According to People’s Action For Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) the number of registered voters for Jaffna MC was 100 417 out of which an estimated 40% lived outside their constituency. However since these records were complied many years ago it was difficult to ascertain how many have been moved to welfare camps. According to the same outdated data, Vavuniya has a vote base of 24 000 odd but the number that has been displaced is unknown.
Additional Elections Commissioner W.P Sumanasiri told The Bottom Line that the 7000 applications for voting cards will be processed before they are allocated and that IDPs who do not possess ID cards will be given temporary documentation from their Grama Niladari. The Commissioner admitted that the low registration was of concern but stressed that the Election Commission could only issue voting cards for people who voluntarily registered and that the political parties themselves must take the initiative to encourage people to vote.
The matter is expected to feature prominently at the party members meeting with the Elections Commissioner Dayanada Dissanayake tomorrow, along with other concerns of security, accessibility and the presence of foreign monitors according to UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake. “We have decided that our party will only conduct door to door campaigns in the Vavuniya and Jaffna local council polls. The main reason for this is that we have to obtain Defence Ministry permission to get people to those areas and in addition to the security constraints the costs are also very high. A plane ticket costs around Rs.22 000 and it is almost impossible to have large crowds taken to organise rallies.”
In response Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene questioned as to why the UNP needed outside people in the first place and insisted that there were no hurdles to people going to vote or attend rallies. As for the expenses he noted that “the government can’t be expected to solve every problem. It is up to the respective parties to sort out those issues.”
Meanwhile, it was announced that postal voting in Uva, Jaffna and Vavuniya will be held on July 27 and 28 and the ballot papers to postal voters will be issued from July 15. According to the Department of Election, Poll cards are scheduled to be delivered to the relevant post offices before July 21. It has been made mandatory to produce the national identity card or an acceptable document to cast the vote at the polls.
In addition all the main political parties including, the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and main opposition United National Party (UNP) have already opened their election offices in Vavuniya. It was reported that UPFA has opened its election office in Thekkawaththa while UNP had selected Maharambakulam as its polls campaign center. The Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) has opened its election office at the Mill Road and Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) has gone to Kurumankadu area.