New Delhi: Election observers from the European Union called on Sri Lankan PM Dinesh Gunawardena ahead of the deployment of 26 observers to follow the campaign for the country’s upcoming elections. The Prime Minister reiterated its commitment to ‘free and fair elections,’ a government press release stated.
The EU Election Observer Team, led by Jose Ignacio Sanchez Amor, will monitor the forthcoming presidential election in Sri Lanka. This is the seventh time that the EU has sent an election monitoring team to Sri Lanka, the last being in 2019.
“The deployment of the Election Observation Mission in Sri Lanka this year confirms the EU’s long-standing commitment to supporting credible, transparent, inclusive, and peaceful elections in the country,” EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka Carmen Morena said in a statement. The team will conduct an interim report immediately after the election, and the full report will be followed up by a full report. The government has assured the EU that all the decisions of the elections, including the allocation of budgetary requirements, will be made by the independent Election Commission.
The government has made the allocation of budgetary requirements, and the rest is for the Commission to carry out, the release added.