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By Amal Jayasinghe COLOMBO (AFP) - Sources reported Sri Lanka's national elections closed on Tuesday after nine hours of balloting marred by allegations of rigging and violence as well as with the sudden death of political matriarch Sirima Bandaranaike.
Election officials said more than 300 cases of violence, voter impersonation and the seizing of ballot boxes were reported and that the authorities were investigating on a case-by-case basis. The poll was marred early Tuesday when it was announced Sirima Bandaranaike, the world's first woman prime minister and Sri Lanka's best known politician, had died after casting her vote in the morning. Bandaranaike, 84, suffered a heart attack while returning to the capital Colombo from the nearby family constituency of Attanagalle, her son, and senior opposition figure Anura Bandaranaike, said. The mother also of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Bandaranaike had stepped down as prime minister in August. She had a 40-year career in politics that started after the assassination of her husband Solomon Bandaranaike in 1959, the only Sri Lankan prime minister to have ruled for three terms. As the election progressed Tuesday, the largest number of complaints came from the central district of Kandy where ruling People's Alliance (PA) general secretary D. M. Jayaratne made allegations of foul play. Another ally of the ruling party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, also said the Kandy poll had been heavily rigged. Reports of sporadic violence included ruling party supporters grabbing automatic weapons from two police constables guarding a booth in the tea-growing district of Nuwara Eliya. Ballot papers were also stolen in Nuwara Eliya while in the southern district of Matara, police arrested at least 10 men who tried to pose as voters and cast ballots. The private Center for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) asked Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake to order a re-poll in six provinces where there had been intensive rigging. "We urge you to consider annulling the votes in the polling centers in the 11 electorates [in six provinces] identified by us ... in order to safeguard the integrity and credibility of both the democratic election process as well as the dignity and impartiality of your office," the CMEV said in a letter to the Commissioner. The government Tuesday also attacked the commissioner again. The People's Alliance said the election chief's move to stamp ballot papers with a unique seal could impair the democratic process. "It is essential to ensure that voters are able to cast their vote secretly, but the work of commissioner should not be done secretly," the party said. The commissioner had vowed secret measures to surprise those who were planning to stuff boxes with forged ballot papers. Officials reported brisk voting with queues forming outside polling booths as balloting began at 7:00 am (0100 GMT) across the country's 22 electoral districts. Voting ended at 4:00 pm (1000 GMT). There was tight nationwide security after unprecedented violence in the five-week run-up to the polls, which claimed at least 65 lives. Most died in suicide bombings and attacks by Tamil Tiger separatist oppositions. The election is expected to be a closely-fought race between President Kumaratunga's PA and the main opposition UNP, with the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, a distant third. In the island's northern Jaffna peninsula, there were reports of heavy artillery duels between government forces and Tamil Tiger oppositions, but the voting appeared to have taken place. Some 12.07 million men and women over the age of 18 years were eligible to vote for 225 members of parliament out of a record 5,477 candidates representing 29 political parties and 99 independent groups. Early voting trends were not expected until about midnight (1800 GMT) with official results not due before Wednesday afternoon. |
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