SRI LANKA: SRI LANKANS PREPARE TO CAST THEIR VOTES IN COUNTRY'S SNAP PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Record ID:
328671
SRI LANKA: SRI LANKANS PREPARE TO CAST THEIR VOTES IN COUNTRY'S SNAP PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
- Title: SRI LANKA: SRI LANKANS PREPARE TO CAST THEIR VOTES IN COUNTRY'S SNAP PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
- Date: 3rd December 2001
- Summary: COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (DECEMBER 3, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. CHECK POINT ON MAIN ROAD 2. VARIOUS: STREET SCENES/ COW CROSSING ROAD (3 SHOTS) 0.28 3. SCU/CU: ELECTION CAMPAIGN POSTER FOR A PEOPLE'S ALLIANCE (PA) PARTY CANDIDATE FOR COLOMBO A.H.M FOUSI (CURRENTLY TRANSPORT MINISTER IN THE GOVERNMENT) (2 SHOTS) 0.36 4. CU: CAMPAIGN POSTER (CHAIR IS SYMBOL OF THE PA) 0.39 5. LV: CARS IN STREET 0.42 6. VARIOUS OF ELECTION POSTERS (3 SHOTS) 0.51 7. SCU: SOUNDBITE (Sinhalese) PA GENERAL SECRETARY D.M. JAYARATNE SAYING "We have told the election commission that there is an election law and he should act in strict compliance with that law." 1.04 8. WS/MV'S/SV: EXTERIOR ELECTION COMMISSION; SECURITY (4 SHOTS) 1.18 9. MV/SV/SCU: ELECTION COMMISSIONER DAYANDA DISSANAYAKE AT NEWS CONFERENCE/ REPORTERS LISTENING (4 SHOTS) 1.32 10. SCU: SOUNDBITE (English) DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL, GAMINI NAVARATNE AND ELECTION COMMISSIONER DAYANDA DISSANAYAKE SAYING "We have taken all precautions and made the arrangements to make it a successful and free election. The result we will have to wait and see." 1.39 11. SCU/CU'S HEAD OF EUROPEAN UNION (EU) ELECTION MONITORS, JOHN CUSHNAHAN READING (3 SHOTS)NEWSPAPERS/ NEWSPAPER HEADLINE 1.51 12. SCU: SOUNDBITE (English) HEAD OF THE EUROPEAN UNION ELECTION MONITORS, JOHN CUSHNAHAN SAYING "One hears and listens to statements made by party leaders, one also hears in my view clear ambivalent statements from leading politicians about the use of violence and that does not create a climate for free and fair elections." 2.10 13. SV/CU: EU MONITORS CARS PARKED IN A ROW; EU ELECTION ELECTION OBSERVATION MISSION SIGN ON CAR WINDOW (2 SHOTS) 2.18 14. SCU: SOUNDBITE (English) JOHN CUSHNAHAN SAYING "If everybody's fears, worst fears, are realised then there is no doubt that this process could be seriously tainted and tarnished." 2.26 15. SCU: SOUNDBITE (English) RAUF HAKEEM, LEADER OF MUSLIM CONGRESS PARTY "Passions are aroused, majority sentiments are aroused and then they (PA supporters who intimidate voters) come and sit on the whole village and create communal carnage." 2.40 16. VARIOUS: NIGHTSHOTS - ARMY CHECK POST ON THE ROAD; ARMY CHECKING CARS (9 SHOTS) 3.23 17. SCU DAILY NEWS NEWSPAPER HEADLINES SHOWING THE PA AND THE UNP ARE NECK AND NECK IN THE POLLS (4 SHOTS) 3.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 18th December 2001 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: COLOMBO, SRI LANKA
- Country: Sri Lanka
- Reuters ID: LVACFBQ4GKKVRXQAB6NEGEAXNSG9
- Story Text: As voters prepared to cast their votes in Sri Lanka's
snap parliamentary elections, monitors and political parties
said they feared a bloodbath and massive ballot rigging.
It was Sri Lanka's political and economic turmoil of
the last year which eventually forced President Chandrika
Kumaratunga to call a snap election on Wednesday
(December 5).
She called the ballot soon after several defections put
her party, the People's Alliance (PA), and its coalition
partner, the Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP), in
danger of losing a no-confidence vote.
Kumaratunga was elected in a separate Presidential poll and
is in office until 2005. She has led the PA's campaign by
saying voters should return the party to power to ensure
stability for the country.
Yet this year's election campaign has been the bloodiest in
recent years and has already claimed 41dead and almost 700
injured with both of the major parties blaming each other for
the violence.
And the election commission, which dismissed last year's
vote as "anything but free and fair", said earlier in the
campaign that it could not guarantee a free vote.
PA General Secretary D.M. Jayaratne accused the Commission
of showing bias towards the opposition and said his party had
ordered the Commission to apply the law so as to ensure
fairness at the polling stations.
"We have told the election commissioner that there is an
election law and he should act in strict compliance with that
law" Jayaratne said.
At a news conference immediately afterwards Election
Commissioner Dayanda Dissanayake said the Commission would do
all it could but fell short of guaranteeing fairness.
"We have taken all precautions and made the arrangements
to make it a successful and free election. The result we will
have to wait and see," he said.
Election monitors and smaller political parties
representing minority groups fear a bloodbath.
The head of the European Union (EU) Election monitors,
John Cushnahan, said it was not up to the electoral commission
to ensure a free and fair election but to the political
leaders themselves.
"One hears and listens to statements made by party
leaders, one also hears in my view clear ambivalent statements
from leading politicians about the use of violence and that
does not create a climate for free and fair elections,"
Cushnahan said.
Observers had said last October's parliamentary elections
were hopelessly flawed by massive rigging by the ruling
Peoples' Alliance (PA) and a violent campaign that left nearly
70 dead.
Sri Lanka is a war-torn country awash with illegal
firearms and has a history of rigged elections both under the
PA and the main opposition United National Party (UNP).
The monitors said they feared history was about to repeat
itself and that unless something dramatic was done to turn the
situation around, the bloodshed and abuse could be worse this
year, a message also put forward by the leader of the
country's main Muslim party, Rauf Hakeem.
"If everybody's worst fears are realised then there is no
doubt that this process will be tainted," Cushnahan told
Reuters television.
"Passions are aroused, majority sentiments are aroused and
then they (PA supporters who intimidate voters) come and sit
on the whole village and create communal carnage," Hakeem
said.
The independent Centre for Monitoring Election Violence
(CMEV) has also blamed both major parties for most of the
political clashes that have racked Sri Lanka in the last six
weeks of campaigning.
Both the PA and the main opposition UNP parties are said
to be neck and neck with one poll published in the state owned
newspaper the Daily News showing that 35.2 percent of voters
were in favour of the PA and 32.0 percent wanted the UNP to
win.
If the polls are true, it leaves the possibility of a
repeat of last year's election which ended in the hung
parliament that eventually led to waves of defections and the
December 5 snap elections.
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