Colombo, March 25: Sri Lankan election authorities will set up special polling centres in Jaffna for the 8th April parliamentary election following a formal request from over 1,500 former LTTE rebels, who are being held in rehabilitation camps there.
The authorities have taken the decision to set up special polling centres for the detained LTTE cadres in Jaffna following a written request from them, local media reports quoted a Department of Elections official as saying.
About 1,565 LTTE suspects, held in different camps in the north, had sent a written request to the commission in this regard, the reports said.
In the letter, the suspected former tiger rebels have demanded that necessary facilities, including transportation, should be provided to them to reach the polling stations.
“The Elections Commissioner has already discussed what needs to be done with the officials in Jaffna (for the Parliamentary elections),” the official said.
“We have made arrangements to provide them with transportation to reach the polling booths as well. We have not deprived them of their right to vote. They are to vote using the temporary identity cards provided to them during the Presidential election.”
During the presidential elections, as many as 209 polling centres were set up in the Wanni region comprising Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Mannar.
Of these, seven polling booths were set up in the Menik Farm camp in Vavuniya.
While, as many as 624 polling centres were set up in the Jaffna district during the presidential poll held on 26th January.
That included 95 booths for the displaced people of the Kilinochchi district.
The government had launched initiatives to rehabilitate nearly 11,000 LTTE cadres with help from civil society, corporates besides the International Organisation for Migration and USAID.
It may be recalled that there were complaints from the resettled people and the IDPs in the North that inadequate transportation facilities had made it difficult for them to reach the polling centres during the presidential elections.
—Agencies