Sri Lanka’s election commissioner has agreed to a set of proposals aimed at holding a transparent vote counting process, the bar association of Sri Lanka said.
The proposals for the upcoming presidential election include, polls monitors to be informed of the results of the counting centers before making it officially announced.
“All the proposals forwarded by us on vote counting have already been accepted”, the association president Attorney-at-Law Upul Jayasuriya told LBO.
The proposals had been made in consultation with the election watchdogs including PAFFREL and CaFFE.
CaFFE executive director Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon told LBO that they will find it easy when room counting sheets display at one location.
“According to the proposals, copy of each room counting sheet will be pasted on a wall of a special room before going it to the returning officer”.
District returning officers will also have to inform the results to the polls monitors before leaving the results to the elections commissioner, Tennakoon added.
The elections department has allowed nearly 300 polls monitors to observe all counting centers.
1,115 counting centers and 304 postal voting counting centers will be set up at 46 counting premises island-wide for the counting process.
PAFFREL executive director Rohana Hettiarachchi hailed the move saying the measures will have a positive impact over the vote counting.
“This is the first time election observers have allowed inside counting centers, so we train our people with the help of the elections department”, Hettiarachchi said.
Presidential election 2015 is scheduled to be held on Thursday despite growing concerns over the incidents of pre-polls violence.
By Gayan Chandrasekara /LBO