Pandemonium reigned in Puttalam town today after used ballot papers were found in a school hall at St Andrew’s MV which was used as a polling booth in last Saturday’s Provincial council elections, officials said.
Three bags containing ballot papers were found in the school.
The police and election officials who arrived at the scene carried out an inspection and took away the ballot papers to carryout further investigations.
Election officials said they were checking whether the bags contained ballot papers which had been counted, but not taken away to the stores.
However the public which gathered in the area expressed doubts about the counting process, claiming that the votes had not been taken into account.
The Commissioner of Elections Mahinda Deshapriya rushed to the scene from Colombo to investigate into the incident. He assured the people that necessary action will be taken to investigat the matter.
One of the UPFA candidates, Ashoka Wadigamangawa who had been elected to the council, but came last among the elected members arrived at the scene and lodged a strong protest. He accused the District Returning officer Kingsly Fernando for manuplating preferential votes.
Courtesy Sunday Times Sri Lanka
Ajith / September 25, 2013
all attention was in North. Raja played his game in the south.
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crazyoldmansl / September 25, 2013
Exactly!
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gamini / September 26, 2013
This is how MR has won all Elections. If the Elections Commissioner has an ounce of self respect he should resign forthwith. If the true will of the masses is to reflect, then there has to be Election Monitors like how they supervised the Northern PC.
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Percy Jilmart / September 25, 2013
Ha haa…no jilmarts in the Northern elections because the world was watching and international election monitors were on the ground…but it is business as usual where the south is concerned. As long as the RajaPox crooks are in power, and the 18th amendment is in force, Sri Lanka will never have any free or fair elections.
Baa baa Basil, have you any hora votes?
Yes MARA, Yes MARA three bags full!
None for the North and two for the Wayamba…
…and one for the Central Province,
Shame shame shame. :-D
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Sunil Perera / September 29, 2013
After spending 1,500 Million rupees for the three PC elections.
http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-43220-news-detail-one-candidate-costs-rs-105-m.html
What a Joker’s country.
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Jilmart / September 25, 2013
All the members of the UPFA have tushed to the scene. We should know what is and who is behind this? And most of all whose votes they were.
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Citizen / September 25, 2013
what a shame this country is facing.
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Desperate_LankeuEU / September 26, 2013
This what we have to face when the leadership is taken away by marauders.
Poor stupid masses should finally realize the facts and figures.
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kris / September 25, 2013
After counting those what is the purpose of keeping those papers
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Rohan / September 25, 2013
Huh! If someone challenges for a recount, where would you go mate? Borella cemetery???
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shankar / September 25, 2013
“One of the UPFA candidates, Ashoka Wadigamangawa who had been elected to the council, but came last among the elected members arrived at the scene and lodged a strong protest. He accused the District Returning officer Kingsly Fernando for manuplating preferential votes.”
I think it is time to get rid of the preferential system of voting.In an already acrimonious environment it is creating and fuelling even more jealosy and petty mindedness and corruption.Individuals will start resorting to anything to show that they are better than the other guy in the party.Why create more and more disunity in the country,now even within political parties let alone between political parties.Also what does this preferential system achieve?People only want to know who should govern them and a election does that anyway.
I always felt that the people made a big mistake when they rejected N.M.Perera,colvin and pieter kuenemen etc and plonked for the corrupt rascals instead.First we should have put the correct foundation for this country and then slowly like china now changed the policies.
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Park / September 25, 2013
UPFA to Election Commissioner: Ba Ba Black Sheep have you any wool? Yes Sir Yes Sir three bags full!
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Yoosuf / September 25, 2013
According to CT the school mentioned was a polling centre, though other media mentions that as a counting centre. Usually counting is done at the district secraite. Therefore most likely a school can not be a counting centre. Hense most logiocaly it could be assured there was a deliberate messeing done for these bag full of casted votes.
There is another aspect, once counted it is usualy sorted and made in to bundles for counting of next step(i,e. prefential votes, etc) Therefore conclusively these ballot papers were not taken in to counting.
Also in point if there were 3 bags left behind, it could possibly be other places as well.
Investigators, kindly take this points in consideration !!!!!!!!!!!
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Wazeem / September 26, 2013
The ballots are not counted at the district secretariat but in selected schools and the final tally sheets are taken to distrcit secretariat to feed the datas into the computers to determine the winning candidates.
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / September 25, 2013
Tip of an iceberg!
Dr.RN
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Ninja / September 25, 2013
What a fiasco. The whole country witnesses the misuse of state media and, the commissioner says it was a fair election
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Vichara / September 25, 2013
Mr. Commissioner,
What has happened to your system. How did your officers reconcile the ballot box and issued ballot paper account?.
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Marwan / September 25, 2013
In this day and age, we must introduce digitized voting system, with audit trail and password controls. No mass or large scale changes should be possible to the cumulative data, and any type of access to such data should be disabled. The only way to update should be through a single vote i.e. one entry per person. This would simulate the case of a normal voting pattern of one individual (voting member) at a time. It can be done if there is the will, and with proper checks and balances. The main server computer is government owned which is located at the University of Moratuwa, which could be remotely accessed. (Only need the IP number and port number to gain access and change the database from a remote site. This must be changed to an independent Organization like Elections Commissioner’s office, and connected through VPN (Virtual Private Network), with authorized – password controlled) access points within the network only for data entry one-by-one, making it cumbersome for making large changes that could create an impact on the results. Remote data can be updated instantly on the main server, whilst the remote computer can retain data purely as a backup. The results can be obtained instantaneous, extremely accurate, less labor intensive as it becomes hardware and software dependent, and dependable to say the least. An independent group IT oriented, should combine as an audit team, authorized to use advanced software to monitor starting balances, and certify integrity of network during its entire duration of operation and give a final report.
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / September 25, 2013
President mahinda Rajapakse’s concluding remarks at the UN General Assemby:
“By nature, human beings have the capacity to achieve the most challenging and noble goals in life, through strong commitment and dedication. I am confident that, by our own collective efforts these results would prove to be beneficial to all humanity. As Buddha, the Enlightened One said,
“Atta hi attano natho”
“Oneself is one’s own benefactor”
Let these timeless words of wisdom guide the destiny of the world.
May the Noble Triple Gem Bless you all.”
Events in Sri Lanka indicate how these words of wisdom are being applied in a perverse sense in Sri Lanka.
Physician heal thy self!
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran
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mahasohon / September 25, 2013
Similar to the ballot papers that were cast for General Fonseka at the Presidential election. “Sri Lankan style democracy found on a garbage heap”. Sucks!
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Kap De Silva / September 25, 2013
Yes sir yes sir three bags full.
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shihan / September 28, 2013
Mr ashoka wadigamangawa ‘s reaction is correct. But later he is asking pardon from district secretary is not a brave action bcs it would harm his personality and image. Ashoka wadigamanga should face to the situation and challenge him to sue him.If this were minister mervin silva, district secretary would have face to a lot of problems…District secretary should know his limits bcs he is just a servant of political authority. Therefore, politicians should not seek pardon from those people..
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ruwan / September 29, 2013
District secretary if responsible man should resign forthwith otherwise one day people would remove you like people forcefully..What a shameless act for the government service…Shameless civil service officers….
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ruwan / September 29, 2013
You cant sue mr wadigamangawa whilst you have done a serious mistake.. So you can also be charged in a court for a serious offense as per government rules which control government servants.. we also would go to court aginst you in future bcs you like inefficient civil service officers are a shame for whole government service…
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