Nominations Centre

“It is refreshing to see the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) coming in to the local election”, says the Director of People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), Kingsley Rodrigo who recently travelled to kilinochchi to talk to the Tamil Tiger leadership about the forthcoming elections.

He added, “It is good if the Tamil Tigers are joining the democratic process through the TNA.The 2002 election had been postponed five times, and there were no people’s representatives in many areas.”

PEFFREL expresses concern on the prospects of election without interference, “It is difficult to imagine a complete change in the North and the East by 30th of March. I am sure the peace talks will take place but an atmosphere for free and fair elections would not be established just in few weeks.”

“It is good that they are getting ready for electioneering, but if they would allow the parties opposing the policies of the Tamil Tigers to operate freely is another matter. We are concerned about that.” Says Kingsley Rodrigo.

	Jaffna

He says the organisation is concerned about the situation of the people living in refugee camps, “On the other hand there are more than two hundred and fifty thousand people whoa are internally displaced. It is the responsibility of the election commissioner to make arrangements for these people to vote. They are citizens of our country. No one has the right to deny them their freedom to vote.”

Not using an up to date election lists had denied many people their rights according to PAFFEL, “It appears that the elections are held just for the sake of it. It will be difficult to conduct free and fair elections under the circumstances. Current process also denies aver four hundred thousand eligible young voters their right for franchise. This happens because the electoral list used for these elections is not the 2005 list.”

“There are also a large number of petitions already piling up in the courts due to various parties loosing their candidacies in several districts. We will have to wait and see what will happen with those before we get optimistic with the election process.” Says Kingsley Rodrigo.