Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake has directed that preparations be made to conduct the Local Elections in the Jaffna District towards the end of this year, as envisaged by the Government.

He has instructed Assistant Commissioner of Elections for Jaffna P. Kuhanathan to start laying the ground work for the poll, seen as a vital step in efforts to restore democracy in the North.

He has also asked all Assistant Commissioners of Elections in the

country to finalize the revision of their respective Electoral Registers for 2008 by the latter part of February or early March 2009. This is in anticipation of holding polls to several Provincial Councils, the terms of which are scheduled to expire in 2009, Elections Department sources said yesterday.

The Assistant Commissioners have asked the Commissioner whether they should also prepare for a snap parliamentary election, though the next scheduled poll is in 2009 and the Presidential Elections in 2010, he had replied that’s a matter which can be decided only by the President.

The Commissioner also requested his officials to take into consideration the shortcomings in the recently concluded PC elections to the Eastern, North Central and the Sabaragamuwa Provinces and to suggest measures they believed could curtail impersonation, rigging and other malpractices during forthcoming polls.

He also briefed the officials on how they could upgrade the Electoral Registers annually under the new system introduced with the assistance of the USAID, where computers have been provided to all the 22 electoral districts in the country to implement the Automated Electoral Registration System (AERS).

To facilitate his officials to issue gazette notifications correctly in connection with election nominations, the Commissioner has distributed CDs which contained blank gazette notifications.

The elections boss met his Deputy Commissioners of Colombo, Kandy, Kurunegala and Gampaha and Senior Assistant Commissioner of Kalutara, Kegalle, Ratnapura and the Assistant Commissioners of the 22 Electoral Districts in the country at the Annual General Meeting held last Thursday at the Elections Secretariat in Rajagiriya.

Also present were Deputy Commissioner P. M. Siriwardhana, Additional Commissioner (Provincial and Local) W. P. Sumanasiri and Deputy Commissioner attached to the Elections Secretariat Mahinda Deshapriya were present

All election officials were unanimously endorsed that it is healthy for free and fair elections that the Supreme Court directive which made NICs compulsory for voting be complied with in future whilst steps were taken to inform the voters in advance of alternate identity cards for voting

"Action must be taken to create an awareness amongst the voters that they must have their NICs to exercise their franchise".