450,000 poll cards still lying at post offices-Sunday Times 02/08/2020.

450,000 poll cards still lying at post offices PMG urges people to collect them before 5 pm on Wednesday; Election Commission also makes special provisions Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)2 Aug 2020By Kasun Warakapitiya Nearly 450,000 poll cards are still remaining at post offices as the Postal Department concluded its house- tohouse distribution process on July 29. Post Master General Ranjith Ariyaratne called on the public to visit area post offices to collect their poll cards if they had not received them yet. He said poll cards would be available at the post offices until 5 pm on August 05. Mr Ariyaratne explained that if residents had their names on the polling list, they could collect the poll cards of family members after producing their National Identity Cards. However, tomorrow, Monday, is a Poya day and a holiday. “We have concluded distributing poll cards from house to house by Wednesday and managed to distribute 99 percent of polling cards by the end of the day," he said. The Postal Chief said some residents were not in their houses when postmen were distributing poll cards. In other instances, the residents had changed addresses. Therefore, the department was unable to deliver the poll cards. However, the department would continue to distribute poll cards in the Rajanganaya area today as the area was under a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. This was done on a special order by the Election Commission. The Election Commission also has requested the people to go to their area post offices and collect their poll card if they had not received the cards. It also said voters would need to prove their identity by producing a recognised identity document. Election Commission spokesperson Channa P Silva said the Department of Registration of Persons also concluded the issuing temporary identification documents on Wednesday. He said National Identity Cards ( NICs), passports, identification letters issued by the Department of Registration of Persons and temporary identity cards issued by the EC were the recognised identification documents at a polling booth. However expired passports would not be considered as valid identification documents. The EC spokesperson requested the people to doublecheck their poll cards and identity cards for typos and correct them by contacting the election office. He said they would allow people who had issues in their identity cards to vote if they could sign an affidavit. Meanwhile Registration of Persons Commissioner General Viyani Gunathilake told the Sunday Times that they discussed with the EC and agreed to issue NICs to applicants who submitted their applications before July 17. For those who submitted applications after July 17 the department would issue temporary identification letters that could be used only for voting. “We have issued more than 35,000 identification letters from July 17 to 29. The letters were sent to EC and would be distributed to people through district secretaries, divisional secretaries and grama sevakas,” he said.