No room for rigging at parliamentary poll - election chief

COLOMBO (News1st): Sri Lanka's poll chief has urged voters to follow health precautions, and has denied any possibility of rigging at Wednesday's parliamentary election. "Apply sanitiser when entering the polling centre, remove your face mask and show your face to the officer," national election commission chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said. He added that voters would be allowed bring their own pen, or would be given a sanitized pen to cast their vote. The polls chief shot down suspicion that the election can be rigged, and assured that ballot boxes would be highly secured to prevent any chance of tampering. "We will use red tape and tie these boxes and seal them," Deshapriya insisted. "Can anyone say ballot boxes will be swapped? Those are blatant lies." He said that the votes would be made null and void if people are threatened to vote for a particular party or candidate at the time of the vote. The election commission chairman assured that the health security of election officers would be protected. "Screens will be placed in front of them. Face masks will be provided and if preferred face shields can be worn as well," he said.