The team of international election monitors, which met with the representatives of several political parties in Colombo today, told media that they have received complaints of misuse of official machinery by the government and using military to discourage Tamil voters in the North from exercising their franchise freely.

Dr. S Y Quraishi, the head of the observer group of Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) said they have received complaints of misuse of state media during poll campaign and that the military had set up 400 roadblocks in the former war torn areas to intimidate Tamil voters.

However, Dr. Quraishi said the police have assured them that they will guarantee that the election is free and fair and they have confidence in the Election Commissioner.

He said the international observers will begin their duties from Monday and cover all the districts of the country and will alert the Election Commissioner of any violations of election code.

He said that their final report on the conduct of elections will be made public immediately after the completion of the electoral process.

The 55-member team of international monitors consists of members of Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBOSA), Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) and the Commonwealth Observers group.

Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, the chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group said that they will assess the complaints they have received on election fraud and other election law violations and determine whether the environment is conducive for a free and fair election.

He said the group will seek a meeting with the military to discuss the complaints that military is involved in the election campaign and intimidating voters.

Dr. Jagdeo said the group will meet the election officials, police officials and High Commissioners in Colombo over the next few days before the election.

The nine-member Commonwealth Observer Group will be deployed to observe the voting process on Election Day and counting and tabulation procedures and the announcement of results after the voting, he said.

Meanwhile the local election monitoring group, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) in their latest report said that they have revived1,095 complaints until today and 116 of them are of election violence while the majority of complaints were on misuse of state property and services.

The watchdog charged that the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government is using violence to deter opposition political activities.

(Colombo Page)