Sri lankan military harassed and intimidated Tamil voters and candidates during the first ever elections in the last 25 years in the Tamil-dominated north, the former bastion of the lTTE, foreign observers have said.
“The role of the military in the electoral campaign was consistently described to the mission as a significant obstacle to a credible electoral process,” a preliminary report by the Commonwealth observer mission said yesterday, a day after the Tamil National Alliance secured a resounding victory by winning 30 of 38 seats in Northern province.
It said that concerns remained on “the heavy presence and influence of the military, including persistent reports of overt military support for particular candidates, reported cases of the military actually campaigning for selected candidates, and military involvement in the intimidation of the electorate, party supporters and candidates”.
The four-member team from Commonwealth nations was headed by former Vice President of Kenya Stephen Kolonzo Musyoka.
The group supplemented a 20-member team of SAARC observers from India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Pakistan headed by the former Indian chief elections commissioner N Gopalaswamy.