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Voting in the 2004 Sri Lanka general elections

Commonwealth Expert Team to observe Sri Lanka Presidential Election

15 January 2010

Former Jamaican Foreign Minister Mr K D Knight to lead Team

A Commonwealth Expert Team (CET) will be present during Sri Lanka’s Presidential Elections due to be held on 26 January 2010. The CET will be led by former Jamaican Foreign Minister Mr K D Knight.

The Team was constituted by Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma at the invitation of the Sri Lanka Commissioner of Elections.

“This is an important election and comes at a crucial time for the country. It is vital that past democratic gains are built upon in order to further consolidate the electoral process”, the Secretary-General said.

The Group’s mandate is to “assess the overall conduct of the electoral process and the environment in which the election is conducted, according to the standards for democratic elections to which the country has committed itself, with reference to national election-related legislation and relevant regional, Commonwealth and other international commitments”.

Media Enquiries

For media enquiries, please contact Mark Stevens, Head of Democracy at his UK mobile: +44-7841-673-372 or via e-mail at m.stevens@commonwealth.int.

The Group will act impartially and independently and shall conduct itself according to the standards expressed in the International Declaration of Principles for Election Observation to which the Commonwealth is a signatory.

The Group’s report will be submitted to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, who will in turn send it to the Government of Sri Lanka, the Commissioner of Elections, political parties, and eventually to all Commonwealth Governments.

The Commonwealth Expert Team will comprise five persons, including the Chair. The team will arrive in Colombo on 19 January 2010 and stay until 1 February 2010.

The Team comprises:

Chair: Mr K D Knight

Former Foreign Minister, Jamaica

Ms Cynthia Barrow-Giles

Lecturer in Political Science (University of the West Indies, Barbados), St Lucia

Mr Subba Rao Ilapavuluri

Chief Electoral Officer of Andhra Pradesh, India

Ms Jane Michuki

Lawyer, Kenya

Mr Tim Neale

Media Expert, UK

The Expert Team will be supported by a four-member staff team from the Commonwealth Secretariat.

1. Jan 24 2010 12:52AM, Rushdi al ayad wrote:

i had a very high regard for the commonwealth teams but this time a very unprofessional team has arrived not willing to employ people who worked before with commonwealth teams

2. Jan 18 2010 4:27AM, Rushdi Al Ayad wrote:

I have worked with the observer mission on three ad i have also worked with other observer teams i must sincirely say the the common wealth is the most accurate abd precise monitoring team i have ever worked with and they are a pleasure to work with