COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
developing regions formerly held by the LTTE, the government has yet to win the
confidence of their inhabitants.
―Allegations of election fraud have surfaced. A non-governmental monitoring group,
People‘s Action for Free and Fair Elections, claimed that incentives had been offered to
voters in Kilinochchi to encourage votes for the government. Several civil society
organisations also voiced concern that thousands of voting cards had been confiscated
and voters threatened with violence.‖
4.02 For the full results of the local elections of July 2011, click on the hyperlink to the
relevant section of the website of the Sri Lanka Department of Elections.
4.03 For information on how such elections were conducted see: Campaign for Free and Fair
Elections and Centre for Monitoring Election Violence.
4.04 The quarter three update to the Human Rights and Democracy: The 2010 Foreign &
Commonwealth Office Report 75 , dated 30 September 2011, noted:
―There was widespread fear and panic over media reports of ‗Grease Yakkas‘ (Grease
Devils) carrying out night-time assaults on women in rural areas of Sri Lanka in July and
August [2011]. In some areas, local communities carried out vigilante attacks on
suspected ‗Grease Yakkas‘ and protested over their alleged links to local military forces.
Three people died, dozens were injured and hundreds were arrested as a result of
vigilante attacks and clashes between law enforcement authorities and civilians in some
areas of the country.
Elections were held for 65 local bodies on 23 July. Intra-party violence resulted in one
death and opposition parties alleged intimidation, misuse of state property and
restrictions on freedom of assembly and speech in the north.‖
4.05 The EIU Country Report Sri Lanka, November 2011 76 reported:
―The third and final phase of local authority elections in Sri Lanka were held on October
8 th [2011], with 23 local government bodies going to the polls. Of the 335 local
authorities in Sri Lanka, elections were held in 322 over the course of 2011. (Polls for 11
local authorities were held in 2008-09 and were therefore not due this year). Two more
local governments in Mullaitivu district, in Northern province, are yet to hold elections,
allegedly owing to delays in resettling internally displaced persons following the end of
the civil war in May 2009.
―Of the 23 local authority bodies, the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA)
won control of 21 councils, consolidating its grip on power in Sri Lanka. Of the 322
councils for which elections were held in 2011, the UPFA secured victories in 271, while
the leading Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, won 30 councils, all of which were
in Tamil-majority districts. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) won only
75 Quarter two update to the Human Rights and Democracy: The 2010 Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Report, 30 June 2011 http://fcohrdreport.readandcomment.com/human-rights-in-countries-of-concern/srilanka/
date accessed 31 January 2012
76 Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report Sri Lanka, November 2011
http://www.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=displayIssueArticle&issue_id=388562223&article_id=688562253
[subscription only] date accessed 6 January 2012
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.
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