Commonwealth election observers to arrive in Sri Lanka early next month

30 July 2013

A team of Commonwealth election observers are expected to arrive in Sri Lanka in the first week of August to cover the pre-election phase of the upcoming Provincial Council elections, an Elections Department official has said. According to the official, the Commonwealth will deploy three teams to cover the Provincial Council elections scheduled to be held in the latter half of September. The three teams will cover the pre-election period, the election day and the post-election period. The teams will compile a comprehensive report on their evaluation of the polls conduct to hand over to the Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya. The Election secretariat has invited three organizations - South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Commonwealth, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to monitor the polls for Northern, Central and North Western provincial councils. The Election Department expects all international monitors to accept the invitation and send their teams to observe the polls. Meanwhile, accepting nominations from political parties and independent groups for the provincial council elections commenced on Thursday and will end on August 1st. The deadline for independent groups to make their deposits to contest the election is July 31 while for registered political parties the deadline is August 1. The election official called on all political parties to submit their nominations early to avoid any mishaps