Rebels disrupt polls in Sri Lanka

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 10

Rebels disrupt polls in Sri Lanka

NZPA-Reuter Colombo Marxist rebels, defying police shoot-to-kill orders, launched attacks on polling stations in an effort to disrupt elections to two provincial councils in Sri Lanka, but voting went ahead despite them.

Officials said rebels of the Sinhalese-based People’s Liberation Front (J.V.P.) attacked polling stations with guns, hand grenades and bombs, killing one policeman and wounding one. Troops and police, ordered to shoot troublemakers on sight,patrolled the streets and guarded voting booths against the J.V.P., which has been blamed for the killings of 20 candidates since campaigning began in March.

They had put up posters

telling people not to vote. “The first 10 to vote will be shot dead,” said one.

“Some ? voters were scared away, but many others turned up,” one official said.

He said heavy rain in some areas also dampened the turnout in elections for two of the nine provincial councils which are a key element in a pact signed by Sri Lanka’s President, Junius Jayawardene, and the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. The J.V.P. opposes the semi-autonomous councils established , under last July’s pact which was intended to end a long and bloody Tamil rebellion by giving the Tamils more say over their own affairs. After they attacked trains and burnt buses

and Government buildings, the J.V.P. rebels started attacking polling booths in the central and western provinces. Officials said a policeman guarding a polling station at Matugama on the outskirts of Colombo was killed by rebels after a 10-minute exchange of gunfire. •Officials said morning voting was generally slow, but that it was expected to pick up later in the day. More than 3.6 million people were eligible to vote at 2800 polling stations to choose 158 council members.

The main Opposition Freedom Party of the former Prime Minister, Sirima Bandaranaike, also opposes the elections saying they would further divide the country.