Sri Lankan presidential poll under Asian monitor’s eye

The Hapag-Lloyd delegation including, Capt. Prateek Gandhi – Director Operations, Hapag-Lloyd, Regional Office, Dubai,Mr. Faheem Mir – Manager - Operations, Hapag-Lloyd, Regional Office, Dubai,Mr. Lalith Witanachchi – Vice President, Hapag-Lloyd Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, Mr. Mindaka Dassanayake – General Manager, Hapag-Lloyd Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.,Mr. Rohan Ranasinghe – Terminal Operations Manager, Hapag-Lloyd AG and Mr. Iqram Cuttilan – Managing Director, Aitken Spence Shipping Ltd poses for a pic with SLPA’s Chairman -Admiral Sirimewan Ranasinghe and the Managing Director - Eng. Ganaka Hemachandra. SLPA's Vice Chairman - Eng. Herath M.P. Jayawardhana, Director (Operations) - Mrs. G. Zavia Miskin and Director (Marketing and BD) - Mr. H J K U Kumara are also present.

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