One dead in Sri Lanka local elections

One dead in Sri Lanka local elections

2011-07-23 23:12:56 GMT+7 (ICT)

COLOMBO (BNO NEWS) -- One person died and two others were injured on Saturday as voting to elect members to 65 councils in Sri Lanka ended, officials said.

The Colombo Page reported that the death was the result of a clash between two groups of supporters for two candidates of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in Anuradhapura district.

An estimated 60 percent of the 2.5 million eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots throughout the island. Several cases of irregularity were reported after polls ended at 4 p.m. local time, despite the presence of the 20,000 police officers that were deployed to ensure a free and fair election.

Opposition parties reported irregularities mainly in the north where elections were held for the first time after 29 years. The election monitoring group, People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) confirmed reports of allegations of election law violations in the north.

PAFFREL spokesman Rohana Hettiarachchi said they received reports of people distributing food to the voters in Kilinochchi in return for the polling cards. "This is a clear violation of election laws," he said.

Election watch dog, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) said that a group of unidentified armed men went to more than 20 villages trying to forcibly grab polling cards from voters. "The people who refused to give away their polling cards were beaten up and threatened to cut their throats out," CaFFE said.

The major Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) also complained of people dressed in military uniforms grabbing polling cards and intimidating voters.

The ruling party led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa carried out a massive campaign in the Tamil-dominated Northern Province. A victory for the ruling party in the former rebel strongholds will be an endorsement for the government's reconciliation process.

Sri Lanka was involved in a bloody civil war between the government and the Tamil Tigers from July 1983 until May 2009, killing as many as 100,000 people. Both sides have been accused of war crimes and other human rights violations.

The final election results are expected to be announced on Sunday.

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