Three dead amid low voter turnout

Friday, 18 March 2011 02:16 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Despite low voter turnout at the Local Government elections yesterday tensions ran high with three people reported dead.

Initial reports by the election monitors noted that the voter turnout was low with only 45%-50% of voters turning out to vote of nearly 10 million eligible people. This figure was also announced by the Elections Secretariat that stated the final turnout will be announced later. However, attention has drawn to the relatively high level of violence on Election Day.

One incident took place in Ahangama where the army fired at a motor cycle that allegedly disregarded orders to stop at the checkpoint. Two people were reported dead. Police reported that they had succumbed to their injuries while being transported to the Karapitiya General Hospital.

Another death was reported as a result of intra-party clashes that happened when a brawl took place at Bulathkohupitiya in Kegalle during the early hours on Thursday. People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) Executive Director Rohan Hettiarachi noted that information received so far suggests that they were supporters of two UPFA candidates. However police have denied that the incident is election related. A hand grenade throwing was reported from the polling station at the Maguldamana Vidyalaya in Aralaganwila, in the Polonnaruwa District. The hand grenade has injured a police officer who was on duty at the polling booth. Aralaganwila Police are conducting further inquiries.

Earlier, Elections Commissioner's Department dispatched 3,000 special counting officers to the counting centres of the local government election island wide. The officials were specially trained in Colombo under the supervision of the Elections Commissioner to handle the final counting of the votes at the local government election.

The Elections Commissioner's Department has decided to release the results of the local government election at the counting centres and all are expected to be finalised by this morning.

Over 70,000 police and Army personnel were deployed to provide security for the elections. The police personnel with the assistance of the Army provided security for the polling stations, the check points and for the transportation of ballot boxes as well as for the counting centres.

Around 50,000 police officers were deployed to provide security on the Election Day. Another 15,000 armed forces personnel and 5,000 police Special Task Force (STF) personnel were also deployed, SSP Jayakody said.

Before the elections 18 candidates who violated the election law were arrested and four of them were further remanded after being produced in court. The Police have so far arrested 123 people in connection with 142 complaints they received on election law violations.