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Voting rights sought for prisoners at next polls

29 Jan 2020

The Campaign for Free & Fair Election (CaFFE) and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka(HRCSL) have urged the Election Commission(EC) to provide the opportunity for prisoners to vote at the forthcoming parliamentary election.

In a letter addressed to EC, CaFFE and HRCSL note that prohibiting prisoners from voting is a serious violation of human rights. The two organisations added that many countries in the world have provided prisoners with the opportunity to cast their votes at elections. According to CaFFE and HRCSL, there are approximately 25000 prisoners in the country. They added that the government can organise polling booths at respective prisons to facilitate voting at the upcoming elections. The two organisations noted that it was not ethical for the government to cite practical and technical reasons to exclude prisoners from voting.      


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