Monitors fear dampened turnout for Lankan polls

The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that voters did not need an identity card in order to cast their ballots, but officials can question voters deemed suspicious -- a move aimed at avoiding fraud involving people coming to vote from areas held by Tamil Tiger rebels.

"Concerns remain that some aspects of the Supreme Court judgement may have the effect of discouraging people from voting or delaying the process," European Union Chief Observer John Cushnahan told reporters on Friday in the northern city of Jaffna.

"We will monitor polling day to see if such fears are realised."

With the race between Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe seen as too close to call, the votes of the island's Tamil minority could be crucial.

"A lot of people in these areas do not have identity books," said Kingsley Rodrigo, chairman of Peoples' Action for a Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL), which will deploy 20,000 monitors. "This could become harassment of the electorate."

While no polling stations will be set up in Tiger-controlled areas, voters who so wish will be bused across no-man's land to booths a kilometre inside government territory. Monitors say they have found fake documents saying the booths will be in army camps, probably forged with the intent of scaring Tamils away.

Most had been expected to back Wickremesinghe, broker of a 2002 ceasefire that still holds, and who is seen as a less hardline candidate than Rajapakse. But on Thursday the Tigers' political proxies, the Tamil National Alliance, said they believed neither candidate would address their concerns.

While one senior opposition United National Party figure said the Tigers might issue a last-minute instruction to Tamils to back Wickremesinghe, analysts said it was also possible they might order an outright boycott -- although the group has said voters are free to choose a candidate.

Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels yesterday accused the military of harassment ahead of next week's presidential elections, when the minority community is expected to play the role of king-maker.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the military had increased checkpoints ahead of the election to restrict movement between rebel- and government-held territory.

"The Sri Lanka army is claiming that the reason for heightened security checks falls under the pretext of the upcoming presidential election," the LTTE said in a statement posted on its website Friday.

Sri Lanka's military blames a rising tide of grenade attacks on army posts in the north and east on the Tigers -- who control roughly a seventh of the country -- trying to create a climate of fear to deter voters.

Earlier in the week, one newspaper reported the army had intercepted radio traffic suggesting a Tiger ground offensive was imminent. An army spokesman denied that story.

Police also said they had found a suicide bomber's jacket of a type used by the Tigers in central Colombo, but did not know why it had been left in a pile of rubbish nor if it had been intended for use.

The independent Daily Mirror quoted Opposition United National Party Deputy General Secretary Tissa Attanayake as saying the party feared Rajapakse's supporters might stage a bombing or attack one of his rallies to create a sympathy vote.

"This is the level of their desperation," he said. "We fully expect a disruption in the coming days."

The Prime Minister's campaign said the claim was completely false, and they were confident of victory.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga lost an eye to a Tiger attack in the 1999 campaign, and analysts say a sympathy vote helped cost Wickremesinghe the election. "