FAIR, SMOOTH SRI LANKA ELECTIONS, SAYS M'SIAN OBSERVER

By P. Vijian

COLOMBO, Jan 28 (Bernama) -- The just-concluded presidential election went
smoothly and was done in line with electoral practices, allowing voters to cast
their ballots in a peaceful atmosphere, says a Malaysian poll observer.

Malaysia's Election Commission (EC) member Zainal Abidin Mat Said said
voters were not under any duress when casting votes during the sixth
presidential election, the first since the end of the violent ethnic conflict
last May.

"(It) Was fair and free election, voters were not under any form of pressure
or influence to vote. It was (a) very satisfactory election.

"This election provided conducive democratic space to voters to exercise
their
democratic right," he told Bernama in Colombo Thursday.

About 10 million Sri Lankan voters voted in the Jan 26 election to elect a
new president for another six terms, and the results were announced Wednesday.

Zainal and another Malaysian, Abdullah Jusoh, also from the commission's
secretariat in Kuala Lumpur, were part of the 41-member international team,
under the aegis of the Association of Asian Election Authorities (Aaea), invited
by the Sri Lankan Government to monitor the poll.

Meanwhile, the Aaea also summed up the election as successful as there was
no violation of election procedures during polling.

"The observers reported that they did not witness any significant deviation
from the procedure as mentioned in election laws, and no irregularities were
reported.

"The whole exercise was done in accordance with the law of the land," Aaea
chief Dr Pan Wei-Ta of Taiwan told a media briefing Thursday.

In the election that attracted much international attention, incumbent
president Mahinda Rajapaksa won with a majority of 1.8 million votes, defeating
his principal rival, General (Rtd) Sarath Fonseka.

-- BERNAMA



Delete & Prev | Delete & Next