South Asians for Human Rights

Promoting Democracy, Upholding Human Rights

By Yohan Perera

The Network for Election Monitoring of Intellectuals for Human Rights (NEM-IHR) yesterday alleged that the local government election for 2011 had gone into crisis mode with the postponement of polls in a large number of local bodies. NEM-IHR Deputy Executive Upali Pannilage told a news conference yesterday, that the postponement of elections in more than 70 local bodies by the Election Commissioner was an unwise move as holding elections from time to time would result in a huge wastage of funds. He explained that  one cannot challenge an order given by the courts to postpone elections in several local bodies, but postponement of polls in more than 70 local bodies by the Polls Chief simply cannot be accepted. Besides this, the NEM-IHR said it had received 351 election incidents as of yesterday out of which there are 72 instances of illegal propaganda.

Source: The Daily Mirror – 26.02.2011