Monitors give Batti polls clean bill of health

PAFFREL, the largest election monitoring body in Sri Lanka, releasing their final pre-election report on the Batticaloa local polls called it as one of the "best behaved elections" in comparison to the polls conducted in recent times.

After nominations were called, some political parties including the TMVP and UNP withdrew from the race, citing that the prevailing conditions were not conducive to hold elections in the district. The major concern attributed for the withdrawal was the presence of armed groups moving freely in the area.

However, according to PAFFREL and Police, complaints regarding carrying arms for election purposes has not been reported todate.

According to PAFFREL Chairman Kingsley Rodrigo, Police had played a critical role taking care to ensure that the environment for elections was as secure and safe as possible.

He said PAFFREL had recieved 26 complaints so far with the majority of them being minor. Non of the cases had resulted in court cases being filed nor arrests being made.

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