IDPS In Id Mess

By Raisa Wickrematunge

Thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) may be unable to exercise their franchise at the January 26 presidential election.

According to the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE), out of approximately 271,000 IDPs eligible to vote, only around 13,700 are registered. In addition there is no system in place to distribute polling cards, nor to transport IDPs to the nine cluster polling stations in the camps, monitors said.

“Thousands of IDPs registered to vote in the camps and were subsequently resettled. As such, the polling cards would be issued to the IDP camps, meaning that the resettled people would have to travel back to the camps in order to cast their vote, People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) spokesman Rohana Hettiarachchi said, adding  that thousands of would-be voters would be disenfranchised and deprived of their vote.

A collection of election monitors on Wednesday held a press conference condemning the electoral governance system in the country.  Additional Elections Commissioner P.M Siriwardana, is in charge of coordinating this issue, but repeated calls over the past week went unanswered.