» 01/23/2010 13:25 SRI LANKA International observers to monitor January 26 vote by Melani Manel Perera Sri Lanka to elect president in a climate of increasing violence. More than 700 incidents during the election campaign and at least 4 dead. An international commission will visit the Asian nation during polling to prevent fraud and violence.
Colombo (AsiaNews) - About 40 observers from the Association of Asian Election Authorities will oversee the 26 January presidential elections. The Taiwanese Wel-Ta Pan, who leads the mission, explained that they were invited by Sri Lankan Elections Commissioner, Dayananda Dissanayake.
Sono Kahan Baloch, Pakistan observer, says that "we will visit as many seats as possible. There will be a representatives in each district, but we can not visit all the stations because of the distance that exists between them. " He explains that, however, their task is primarily to ensure the regularity of the vote and the absence of violence.
There are 14,088,500 registered voters in the country who will vote in 10,875 polling stations from 7 am to 16. The votes will be counted in 888 sections.
Sri Lanka approaches the elections in a climate of increasing violence, which has already resulted in 4 deaths. Yesterday, the house of opposition politician Tiran Allas was targeted in a bomb attack. Local observers speak of more than 700 incidents in the campaign, which ends today at midnight. On 25 January the Center for the monitoring of violence in the elections will report the situation and data on violence and corruption during the electioneering. In turn, the international observers will prepare for their January 28 report on the conduct of the vote.
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