Brussels, 22/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said on Monday: 'According to the preliminary findings of the EU Electoral Observation Mission, Sri Lanka's presidential elections have taken place smoothly in the whole country, except for the North and East, and have shown several improvements as compared with the past…. However, I have seen with a lot of concern the various reports on the actions taken by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to prevent people from exercising their right to vote in some parts of the North and East. We deeply regret this attitude of the LTTE on election day. This is in complete contradiction with our repeated calls that they should allow for greater pluralism and democracy in the North and East of Sri Lanka.' Ferrero-Waldner added: 'I have congratulated the new President of Sri Lanka (Mr Mahinda Rajapakse, Ed.) and assured him of the EU's continued support to efforts by all parties to reach a fair and sustainable solution to the Sri Lankan conflict.'
Turnout was very low in the North and East because of violent intimidation in Tamil areas like Batticaola, where various polling stations were bombed, along with a counting centre and a bus transporting voters. EU observers even had to be evacuated on polling day. The EU Election Observation Mission's preliminary report points out that the state media did not report in a balanced or impartial way on the elections although overall, there were a variety of views expressed in the media allowing comparisons to be made between the various political parties and candidates on offer, thereby allowing voter choice.