Over 8,000 health officials to join police to conduct Sri Lanka polls

Over 8,000 health officials will be on duty alongside over 69,000 police personnel during Sri Lanka's parliamentary election to be held on Wednesday amidst the coronavirus pandemic, a senior medical officer announced on Monday.

Over 16 million people are eligible to exercise their franchise in the August 5 general election that will elect 225 lawmakers for the next five years.

"We have deployed over 8,000 health officials to conduct the election. The main objective is to prevent the spread of COVID-19," Director General of Health Services Dr Anil Jasinghe told reporters here.

"For those on home quarantine, polling would be allowed from 4 pm. We hope by then most voters would have voted and polling stations would not be crowded," he said. The voting will take place between 7 am and 5 pm on Wednesday.

The polls would be held under strict COVID-19 health guidelines. The guidelines outline maintaining distance, washing hands and wearing masks. Voters have been asked to bring their own pen to mark votes.

Meanwhile, DIG in-charge of Elections Priyantha Weerasuriya on Monday said over 69,000 police officials would be deployed for election duties in addition to the Special Task Force (STF) and Intelligence personnel.

He said at least 3,069 police mobile patrol units will be deployed on the Election Day, covering all polling stations and counting centres and road blocks will also be established.

The Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya on Sunday said that the army would not be deployed during the entire election period.

The Army is currently providing security to police stations as forces there are assigned for election duties, he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic which forced the postponement of the polls date twice has also resulted in a change to the votes counting.

The counting would take place only on the following morning - a departure from the practice of counting them from 8 pm on the election night.

The decision was taken to comply with the health guidelines to maintain social distancing and employ other COVID-19 preventive measures.

Sri Lanka’s coronavirus tally currently stands at 2,816 with 11 deaths. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on March 2 dissolved Parliament, six months ahead of schedule, and called for snap polls on April 25.

However, the election commission in mid-April postponed the elections by nearly two months to June 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak in the island nation.

The commission in June informed the apex court that the polls cannot be held on June 20 because of the coronavirus pandemic and the new date of August 5 was decided following a unanimous decision reached between the members of the commission. 

(Photo Credit: AP)