Twenty per cent postal voting of military personnel rejected

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Around 20% of the applications of military personnel who applied for postal voting have been rejected. Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) claimed that this trend is very predominant in the East.
“In many instances their application was either rejected and some cases there has been no response from the respective Assistant Election Commissioners. We have compiled a list according to the information we have received,” a CMEV spokesman said. “In some military bases almost 50% of the applications were rejected.”
According to the CMEV at the Air Force Camp in Uhana, 400 applications out of 811 were rejected. In Sandunpura Vijayaba Infantry 3rd Batallion Camp, out of 100 applications 99 were wither rejected or has received no response while in the Army 3rd Women’s Corps, 51 applications were refused out of 163 applications received. “The same trend can be seen in some police stations in the East. In Bakkialla, out of 977 applications 170 were rejected or received no responses. In the Ampara Police Station, out of 943 applications 109 were rejected,” the CMEV spokesman said. “Meanwhile in the Dehiattakandiya Police Station, out of 288 applications, 111were rejected or had no response. In the Uhana Police Station, out of the 693 applications there were- 62 rejections and 3 no response.”
The CMEV claimed that when contacted, the Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake said that most probably the applications did not reach the respective District Election Offices by the December 18 deadline. “Although some applications from the above listed camps and stations were posted on December 16, we have learned that applications from the 3rd Women’s Corps were posted on December 13,” he said.