By Kushali Atukorale, Rathindra
Kuruwita and Mirudhula Thambiah

The United National Party (UNP) and election monitors claim that there is not enough time to campaign in Jaffna for the Municipal Council elections because of the delay taken by the Government to give the opposition parties clearance to visit the area.

“We have to get post to post clearance from the Defense Ministry to go beyond Medawachchi but we have not yet received it. We are not sure that we will get it for at least two more weeks and this would mean that we will have only about two weeks to campaign in Jaffna. But already political parties affiliated to the Government have started campaigning,” said UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake. “The Government is dragging its feet deliberately and the only option we have is to travel to Jaffna by air but that is an expense we cannot afford,” he added.

Attanayake claimed that to travel by air plane it costs an individual at least 22, 000 rupees and this has given the Government an undue advantage. “How can we conduct an election like this? What is the point in doing an election like this when only one party is given the chance to campaign,” he said.

Meanwhile Managing Director of the Peoples’ Alliance for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFERAL) Rohana Hettiarachchi also claimed that opposition political parties have informed him that they are not given the chance to visit Jaffna and he will take up the issue when he meets the Election Commissioner next week. “Even we have not been given the chance to go to Jaffna and we want to talk about that with the Commissioner. There is only one month to the elections but opposition political parties still have not got the chance to start their campaign,” he said.

Meanwhile Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon claimed that the EPDP has started their campaign in Jaffna and are campaigning heavily. “The only way that the UNP or any other political party members can go there is through air travel,” he said.

Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana claimed that these steps have been taken to ensure the safety of the candidates themselves. “We just cleared the area but we have to be very careful about this but UNPers in Jaffna can start campaigning, they don’t need to get clearance,” he said.

Meanwhile DIG in charge of elections security Gamini Navaratna said that there have been no major election violent complaints received so far and the campaigning is being carried out by all parties without any disturbances.

“We got some minor complaints in the Uva areas but they were just small conflicts among the villagers,” he said. “The conflicts among the villagers were just day to day problems,” he added. But election monitors claim that there has been election violations in Moneragala and Badulla and in Haliella specially but the biggest issue they claim lies in the fact that over 20% of the voters in Uva Province do not possess valid identity cards.

“We told the Election Commissioner and DIG elections that about 20% of the population have no id cards,” said Rohana Hettiarachchi. “We have made forms available for temporary IDs cards via Grama Sevakas but the response has been low,” he added.

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