2013-09-24
Over 1000 ballot papers were found in St Andrew’s College, Puttalam which was one of the four counting centers in Puttalam. It is located near the Puttalam Police Station. The laborers of this school made this discovery today (September 24) when they tried to clean the school after it was used for counting. They found piles of marked ballot papers which has been used for the September 21 Provincial Council Elections. They have informed the incident to the police and CaFFE.
As our monitors arrived Police had already surrounded the place and attempted to prevent CaFFE observers from reaching the scene. But our monitors reached the vicinity of the ballot papers and they estimated that there are least more than 1000 ballot papers, some filed in bundles and others scattered in a corner of a room. They could see UPFA no 8 (Indrani Dassanayake,) 10 (Sudath Chandrasekara) and 11 (Chinthaka Mayadunne) marked on ballot papers.
CaFFE believes this is adds further doubts on the counting process. In recent days several incidents occurred creating serious concerns of the Counting process. Its worthwhile noting that in Kandy two groups of supporters clashed with each other, during the very last minuet of counting preferential votes, due to suspicious activity. In Kurunegala the preferential vote count of the UNP has caused making serious doubts as former leader of the opposition Shamal Senarath has managed to secure the second place. In 2010 Presidential Elections 400 ballot papers marked for the Swan symbol was found in Kalagedihena.
CaFFE in its Election Day report stated that ‘CaFFE has received four complaints by UPFA candidates and their close associates, in Puttalam, and CaFFE has requested three time to monitor the counting, the most vital part of the election.’
CaFFE wrote 3 letters to the Elections Commissioner asking permission to observe the counting. Not even a letter was sent to CaFFE on our request. On the Election Day CaFFE received 3 complaints from UPFA candidates and their associates that the counting in Puttalam can be manipulated and requesting us to ensure the fairness of counting. The same letters were sent to the Elections Commissioner. The Commissioner once again denied the allegations but CaFFE had its election day press conference at Hotel Nippon and distributed these letters among journalists. We said we are kept in dark on counting and that the counting stage of the election is open to monitors in almost all democratic countries.
Our allegations and point were once again highlighted with this incident and once again proved the importance of opening the counting stage of the elections to independent observers. CaFFE requests the Elections Commission to hold an independent inquiry onto the incident and requests access for CaFFE into the investigation.
