2004 Annual Report, NPDS Project.pdf - IDP SriLanka

It was informed by the Elections Commission that, they would be Conducting ofinstruction classes for enumeration – 15 th May 2004 to 30 th May 2004 house to houseenumeration – 1 st June to 30 th August Also they informed that in certain regionsenumeration classes would not be held. So the Project undertook to conduct classesin the regions of Batticaloa, Mannar, Puttlam, Trincomalee and Vauniya. It wasinformed that Election Authorities are conducting programmes in Jaffna.Five programmes were conducted in the unclear areas after a special circular wasissued on the 18 th August 2004 where the Election Commissioner instructed to issueforms for registration of all eligible IDPs in the cleared and unclear areas. 229 GSsparticipated to the above Programmes. They were educated on the procedure ofregistration.Total GS Divisions where IDPs live – 619Total Number of Participants- 310The Project covered 50% of the GS divisions where the IDPs live.RegionNo. of GNdivisions in theRegionNo. of GNdivisions whereIDPs liveNo. of GNsBatticaloa 195 32 64Mannar 152 152(136 Gs) 76Puttlam 549 149 95Trincomalee 230 184 119Vauniya 102 102 (48 main) 56 Other ProgrammesProgrammes were conducted for the HRAs to create awareness and also to motivatepeople to participate in the process of registration. In Mannar programmes wereconducted for the IDPs and nearly 300 IDPs participated in the programmes. Theywere made aware of the process of registration and also the importance of exercisingtheir right.3. Negotiations with the Elections CommissionThe closing date of submitting the voting registration lists was on the 15 th of February2004 but after negotiations with the Elections Commission it was postponed to the 1 stof March.It was also informed to the Project that the people in the unclear areas might lose theright to vote. There are around 269, 228 people living in unclear areas in Killinochchi,Maruthankerny, Vauniya, Mannar, Mullathivu, Kalkuda, Batticaloa and Paddirippudue to security reasons.The HRC took prompt actions by informing the Elections Commissioner the difficultiesthat the IDPs will have to face as they will have to pass two check points to come tothe Government controlled areas. The HRC made the following suggestions,To open the relevant entry check points for 24 hours from the 1 st of April to the 3 rdof AprilAnnual Report 2004National Protection and Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons ProjectHuman Rights Commission of Sri Lanka25