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Some 30,000 in Badulla have no NICs - CaFFE
Aug 14, 201403:27 PM
Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) says that the National Identity Card (NIC) number of some 40,350 eligible voters in Badulla district have been not mentioned in the voting list.
It has also come to light that over 30,000 persons in Badulla have no NICs at all.
CaFFE Executive Director Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon said that, therefore, in a collaborative effort, the Department of Registration of Persons and CaFFE will commence mobile clinics to facilitate eligible voters to obtain their NICs and Special Identification Documents (SID) issued by the Department of Elections, for those who don’t have the NIC.
The first mobile clinic will be held on 19 August in Paranagama. Meanwhile clinics will be held at Ella on 20 August, Bandarawela on 21, 22 August and Haputale on 23 August.
Issuing a statement, the CaFFE says “In pre election surveys CaFFE has identified that a significant number of people in Uva did not have valid identity cards needed to cast their vote. This situation can specially be seen among the most vulnerable communities, i.e. Indian origin plantation sector workers in Badulla district, those living in border villages and the communities in four of the 10 most poor divisional secretariat areas in Sri Lanka.
Valid identification documents are a must to vote in Sri Lankan elections and a large number of people, often from the poorest social segments, are not able to vote. CaFFE has conducted similar clinics during previous provincial council elections which had a positive impact in the voting patterns. For example CaFFE and its sister organization Center for Human Rights and Research (CHR) facilitated over 35 000 national identity cards in the Northern Province prior to the September 2013 provincial council election and this was a main contributing factor to the increased voter turnout in the Northern election,”
