Commonwealth team to watch Lankan polls

Former president of Mauritius Cassam Uteem is leading the team which started working on November 9.

Sent by the Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon, the experts will be briefed in Colombo by the election commissioner, representatives of the presidential candidates and their parties, Commonwealth diplomats, international and domestic observers, representatives of civil society, and the media. The decision to send the Commonwealth expert team follows an invitation from the commissioner of elections of Sri Lanka.

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According to a release by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the team will observe preparations for the election, polling, counting and result process as well as the overall electoral environment.

The other experts are-- Head of the department of Government, Sociology and Social Work of University of the West Indies Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Secretary General of the Fair Election Monitoring Alliance in Bangladesh Feroz Hassan, Chair of Trinidad and Tobago Coalition against Domestic Violence Senator Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, Deputy Secretary of Independent Election Commission of Botswana Martha Sayed and Electoral Commissioner of UK Karamjit Singh.

The Commonwealth observed the parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka in October 2000 and in May 2004.