Jaffna/Kili Local Election News 2
Faded Douglas Devananda poster, beneath bullet holes, Jaffna. From an earlier election, 2010
This is a report from Dinidu de Alwis, covering the elections in the north. It’s basically what I wrote down as he talked over the phone:
“We were in Kilinochchi yesterday. MP from TNA was meeting with cops, let cops speak first, Sridaran brought in four witnesses (candidates), one of them said he was offered a bribe, tried to call the cops 21 times, each time the cop who answered was a Sinhala-speaking police officer, couldn’t take down his complaint.”
[this is a major issue. A) bribes to cross over (my assumption) are common from Parliament on down B) Cops that don't speak Tamil in the north cannot do their job properly and should be replaced with cops that do.]
“Namal was apparently in town, distributing farm equipment, water pumps, sewing machines. Cops said they’ll assure by yesterday night that any posters with party symbols would be taken off.”
“Went to tuition class in Kili that was burnt down, coconut thatch roof, roof was burnt down. Appara TNA had meeting in night, was burnt in morning. The six buses, what Kilinochchi is going to do is put them in service so voters can come in. Voters have to pay bus fare. Buses would be manned by one cop and one election official to ensure that there’s no canvassing in the buses.”
“Caffe [Campaign for free and fair elections] at meeting offered to pay for another bus which was rejected by elections commissioner there. Amantha tweeted that the big elections commissioner in Colombo said that civil society groups putting buses was fine. Offer at Kili was embarrassingly rejected.”
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You guys rock, thanks.
Thanks for the update guys. Great job. Keep safe.