By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya

The European Union has indicated it is keen to send an Election Observation Mission to monitor the August 17 parliamentary election. Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka David Daly met Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya at the Elections Secretariat in Rajagiriya for discussions in this regard on Saturday (27). The Extraordinary Gazette notification announcing the dissolution of parliament and the date of the 2015 parliamentary election was released on Friday (26).

The EU team will be deployed at the EU’s own expense according to informed sources. At a forum with election authorities in April Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera had expressed interest in inviting the EU to send an election observation team for the upcoming election, it is learnt. The international election observers invited by the Elections Commissioner are, the Forum of Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBOSA), Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) and the Commonwealth’s election monitoring team. These are the same international groups that monitored the January 8th presidential election. The EU team however will monitor the August election at its own cost and submit a report, sources said.

Months ago EU representatives had also met with the local election monitoring body PAFFREL (Peoples Action for Free and Fair Elections) to discuss matters relating to a possible visit of an observer mission. This was to ascertain when they should come, where they should go etc., PAFFEL’s Executive
Director Rohana Hettiarachchi said. The last time the EU sent an observer mission to Sri Lanka was in 2005 he said. The EU’s request to monitor the January 8th presidential election this year was turned down owing to objections from some of the presidential candidates. In 2010 the EU declined to send an observer mission citing time constraints. This will be the first time in 10 years that an EU team will be monitoring an election in Sri Lanka.

A US election monitoring group called National Democratic Institute may also send monitors to work with ANFREL (Asian Network for Free Elections) according to Hettiarachchi. At least 25 foreign election monitors will be invited under the ANFREL umbrella. PAFFREL is a member organization of ANFREL.