Lankan military harassed and intimidated Tamil voters: Report

COLOMBO: 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.

Gopalaswami also raised concerns over the alleged role of the army in the attack on the house of a candidate of the TNA party on election eve.

"A local election monitor was also injured in the attack," Gopalaswami said yesterday.

The army was also involved in the election in other ways including by distributing handouts, the monitors charged.

"The fundamental freedoms of association and assembly were constrained in the pre-electoral period," the Commonwealth report said.

"We learned that opposition candidates and their supporters, as well as voters at large, faced instances of intimidation and harassment, and that the freedom to hold campaign meetings and openly interact with the electorate was restricted. We particularly noted the reports of attacks on one of the few female candidates in this campaign," it said.

The media environment appeared constricted. It was reported to us that several media outlets were self-censoring when it came to in-depth or sensitive reporting on the polls, it said.

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