Sri Lankan presidential poll under Asian monitor’s eye

Jan 22, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's upcoming presidential polls will be monitored by around 40 observers representing the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA), a Taiwan based body, officials said. The Asian observers had come on an invitation extended by elections chief Dayananda Dishanayake, Pan Wel-Ta, Taiwanese election commissioner, who is heading the mission to Colombo said.

All districts in the country including the north and east will be observed by the Asian elections observers, officials said.

There are 14 million registered voters in Sri Lanka, casting their votes at over 11,000 polling booths in the country.

"We will without wasting any time visit as many polling stations as possible," Sono Kahan Baloch, a Pakistani election official said.

"Every districts we have our representatives but we can't visit all polling stations depending on the distance between the polling stations."

At next weeks polls President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former military chief Sarath Fonseka are front runners.

"The responsibility of the international observer group is to see what is happening at the polling station and violence and the local law and order is not the responsi