Bhathiya Barukanda
The Election Commission (EC) has disallowed diplomats of European Union (EU) missions in Colombo to be part of its monitoring team during next week’s presidential election.
Election Commission Chairman R.M.A.L. Ratnayake told a request was turned down and the local embassy staff of the EU could not be deployed on election observation activities.
A senior election officer explained that diplomats based in Sri Lanka could not engage with any observation mission and that it was not the policy of the EC or the country to permit them to observe elections. He said they had also explained to the EU team during the initial discussion they had with the EC that foreign diplomats could not engage in election monitoring.
An EU election observation team spokesperson said, “All the accreditation requests sent by the EU Observer Mission to the Election Commission have been accepted, and all our observers have been accredited. As far as EU diplomats are concerned, our mission has not applied for accreditation for them.”
Source: sundaytimes.lk
