No change in no.of Vanni seats: Deshapriya

1 April 2013 12:26 am

The Department stated the number of voters in the area had not changed, therefore they’d have the same number of representatives from the district.

Earlier last week, Deputy Elections Commissioner for Vanni and Mullaitivu, A. S. Karunanidhi alleged that the Vanni District would have only five seats in Parliament instead of six, as the number of registered voters in 2012 had seen a considerable decrease when compared to previous counts.
Mr. Karunanidhi said the number of registered voters in the district had decreased by 219,196.  

Countering the allegations, Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said they would be taking disciplinary action as the Deputy Commissioner could not make such statements to the media.  “Making such a statement is well beyond his purview and we will take disciplinary action in this regard,” he said.
The Commissioner also said a meeting would be held during the week to decide what course of action should be taken to rectify the matter.

The Elections Department allocates Parliamentary seats to each district taking into consideration the number of registered voters in the area. In the most recent allocations the Parliamentary seats for Badulla were reduced by one while Nuwara Eliya was allocated an additional seat. (Nabeela Hussain)