LTTE propaganda channelled through foreign media including the BBC, AFP, Reuters and AP.
And How they distort news reports
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* Poll free and fair, say Foreign Monitors
The international election monitoring group, the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA), called the May 10 polls in East as one of the best behaved and effectively conducted elections they had ever witnessed.
Releasing their observation report on the polls yesterday, the AAEA said that the elections were totally free and fair and that they had not encountered a single untoward incident during their monitoring process.
The AAEA comprised 17 members from 10 Asian countries, with the team including eminent personalities in their respective countries including several elections commissioners in their ranks, who had a thorough experience in international election observations.
Group leader Ming-Hwa Tsai said the team had been divided into three groups and had done an extensive monitoring process before arriving at the conclusion.
The AAEA praised the conduct of polling agents, election and security authorities for their active participation in the process which they called as one which acted as an effective form of check-and-balance preventing malpractices. They also noted that the professionalism demonstrated by the election administrators had greatly contributed to the credibility of the result.
The AAEA also praised the behaviour of the Eastern polity, describing the voter participation, discipline and enthusiasm as exemplary. The AAEA pointed out that this in itself was ample testimony to their understanding of the importance of the electoral exercise and adhering to democratic norms.
The AAEA concluding their mission said the fact that people themselves embraced the elections, more than anything else, proved that the poll was free and fair.
Rasika SOMARATHNA
DailyNews
“The reason why the UNP has raised a mighty hue and cry over alleged election malpractices is not because they don’t know that the EPC elections was as peaceful as any election in the south can ever hope to be, but because of the apprehension that this defeat may give rise to another leadership challenge within the UNP. In fact, the UNP knew as well as we columnists did, that winning was going to be an uphill task which is why they formed bogus elections monitoring NGOs and began talking of the impossibility of having a free and fair election, weeks before the elections were actually held, and when pre-election violence much lower than at most elections held in the south. Despite the panic stricken rhetoric being spewed forth by UNP apologists, it must be said that, this defeat is not really a defeat for the UNP.”
An independent National News Paper-The Island
Bullet to ballot The relatively violence-free conduct of the first ever election to Sri Lanka’s Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) is a feather in the cap of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), which teamed up with the breakaway LTTE group led by Pillayan, has emerged victorious with 20 of the 37 seats. The opposition parties have charged the government with large-scale electoral irregularities. The reports of independent observer groups provide some support to such complaints. However, the fact that the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) combine polled over 42 per cent of the votes cast indicates that the charge of large-scale rigging has no leg to stand on. Quite apart from who won and who lost, the EPC election has far-going political significance.
The Hindu Editorial