Brussels, 11/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - Violence, undue use of government resources and unfair access to the media: the first interim report by European observers on the campaign for the elections in Sri Lanka is more than alarming. The head of the delegation, the MEP John Cushnahan (EPP, Ireland), published its first analysis basing itself on the reports by the 28 long-term observers and 42 short-term observers deployed in Sri Lanka during the period preceding the election. The final report will be presented to the European Commission on 17 October.
For the time being, the observers indicate that they had "excellent cooperation with the electoral civil servants, political parties, government, police forces and population", and that they where impressed by the expertise and involvement of the election commissioner and his officials". However, they note several areas of "concern": - "they has been clear evidence of the misuse of government resources for campaigning purposes"; "there was not equal access for all parties to in the government controlled media"; - "certain party activists did not respect the law following the close of campaigning; - "the election campaign was marred by violence", notably during the two attacks that lead to a huge loss of life; - "no normal political activity has been possible in the "uncleared" areas controlled by the LTTE".