by Zacki Jabbar

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake, has informed the Opposition, that he will obtain the services of foreign and local monitors for the Presidential and Parliamentary Polls, expected to be held early next year.

Deputy Leader of the UNP, Karu Jayasuriya MP, told The Island that the assurance was given, when an Opposition delegation headed by him, called on Dissanayake yesterday to make representations with regard to the conduct of free and fair elections.

“We told the Elections Commissioner that, considering the blatant polls violations by UPFA candidates, at recent elections, it was imperative that both foreign and local monitors be deployed, at both the Presidential and Parliamentary polls.”

Jayasuriya said that the government by holding staggered provincial elections, had distorted the true situation.

“Instead of holding elections to five provincial councils, excluding the East, on one day, the government spread it out to obtain an unfair advantage,” he said “Staggered polls in the provinces, distorts the overall picture nationally. We are prepared for elections, whether it be Presidential or Parliamentary.”