COLOMBO – The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Sri Lanka’s presidential election has deployed 32 short-term observers to all electoral districts, the EU EOM said.
Sri Lanka will hold its ninth presidential poll on Saturday (21) to elect the ninth executive president of the country. A total of 17.1 million voters are eligible to cast their votes in 22 electoral districts with 160 constituencies.
The EU observers will observe the period of campaign silence and Election Day proceedings, including the opening of polling stations, voting, and counting of ballots, as well as the tabulation of results.
“The short-term observers who are reinforcing our mission today will visit towns and villages in all nine provinces of Sri Lanka and their observations will be vital for the mission to make a comprehensive, well-informed assessment of this very important election day,” Inta Lase, Deputy Chief Observer of the EU EOM Sri Lanka 2024 said in a statement.
“The presence of our observers in every district counting and tabulation centre underlines our commitment to transparency in the electoral process.”
The EU EOM short-term observers will work in multinational teams of two and this follows an earlier deployment of 26 long-term observers who have been observing the preparations for elections and the campaign environment in all provinces of Sri Lanka already since August 29.
Sri Lanka Election Commission has received nearly 5,000 complaints over election violations as of Wednesday (18) and has said it had already resolved 4,300 out of them.
“Our commitment extends to offering an informed, fact-based assessment of the electoral process against the national law, as well as regional and international standards Sri Lanka has signed up to,” Lase said, adding that the EU EOM was strictly adhering to three guiding principles – independence, impartiality and non-interference in their work.
-economynext.com
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.