Election Observation During a Pandemic: CMEV Activity Report

Lockdown, quarantine, flattening the curve and shutdown are not the terms familiar to many. CMEV also faced new experiences and challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic situation. This document first provides an overview of some of the interventions made by CMEV in this period. It also details media coverage of CMEV’s activities and interventions. Finally, the document provides a snapshot of activity on CMEV’s official website and Facebook pages, as indicators of CMEV’s online operations during this period.

The pre-election campaign period for the Parliamentary General Election 2020 was active since midnight of March 02, 2020 and CMEV has been recording an increasing number of campaign related complaints despite preferential numbers for candidates not even being issued. Those complaints were not entirely related to conventional election violence and violation related incidents as with elections in the past. Many of the complaints received were connected to the politicisation of relief measures provided by the government in the wake of the pandemic.

One of the significant factors affecting CMEV’s work was attempting to run an election observation mission in a context that did not allow for access to our head office with significant travel restrictions also been imposed on our mobility. In addition, we have had to determine manner in which we are supposed to contribute to the election process while it has been continuously postponed due to its uncertain legal foundation. Despite this, CMEV staff have continued to carry out their duties as usual while being based at their respective residences during this restricted context.

Key Interventions

Below are some of the key interventions made by CMEV:

1. Publishing ‘Considerations for Holding an Election During the COVID-19 Pandemic’, a Briefing Paper offering election stakeholders and voters an outline of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected elections worldwide; and important factors to note in the Sri Lankan electoral context.

2. Issuing a statement calling for postponing the Parliamentary General Election 2020 at the onset of the pandemic situation on March 17, 2020

3. Acting in coordination with all other domestic election observation organisations to issue joint statement urging all relevant authorities to resolve their issues regarding a new election date with the mutual understanding of not creating a constitutional crisis against the backdrop of COVID19

4. Participating in designing health guidelines for the election on the Election Commission’s invitation, and in collaboration with regional election observer network ANFREL and national election observer PAFFREL

5. Preparing a guideline on ‘Safety measures in elections, Election Dispute Resolution Systems and New Approaches in the Midst of Pandemic Situations’ to submit to the Election Commission

6. Assisting in coordinating the essential supplies delivery and relief provision work of the NGO consortium set up in response to COVID-19 with the participation of civil society organisations

7. Making complaints to the Election Commission and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on pandemic relief programme related election law violations, including the misuse of voter lists and abuse of powers by a number of public authorities and officials regarding the LKR 5,000 relief measure

8. Conducting a series of webinars to share experiences and learnings with election stakeholders in Myanmar targeting the general election of Myanmar to be held in November 2020, in partnership with Democracy Reporting International, ANFREL and other election stakeholders in Myanmar

9. Assisting ANFREL with developing a Code of Conduct for all domestic election observation organisations for election observation operations during the pandemic situation

Interventions referred to in points #1, #3 and #7 above

Below are some of the regular interventions made by CMEV:

10. Publicising nominations information for the Parliamentary General Election 2020, including electorate and national list level nominations from political parties and independent groups and statistics

11. Following through with complaints to the Election Commission and other authorities on regular election law violations, including public officials engaging in election campaigning

12. Regular updates on CMEV social media channels about election-related news and developments

Interventions referred to in point #10 above

Media Coverage

Date Source Headline Link 13/01/2020 Resa Newspaper රැස දෙවසර槒න් ඉ엒ක්බි뗒ව… Link 16/01/2020 Ceylon Today Wijeyadasa's 22nd Amendment opportunistic - Gajanayake Link 20/01/2020 TNLRN News Radio �ක්බුන්ට දේශපාලනදෙන් ද ාර ජා뗒ක වග槓මක්බ Link 21/01/2020 TNLRN News Radio Reveal stance on handing nominations to monks Link The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions: Wijeyadasa’s ‘21st & 21/01/2020 Colombo Telegraph Link 22nd Amendments’ 21/01/2020 Lankadeepa 엒ලධා ස엔හදේට නොට අ췔දකාළ ජන ාවා뷓 ආකල්ප Link 24/01/2020 TNLRN News Radio CMEV commends move to amend election laws Link 24/01/2020 TNLRN News Radio ඡන්ෙෙ භාවි 槒දේ නව ක්බ්‍රමදේෙ හ췔න්වා뷓ම ඇගමට ලක්බදව Link UNP National List vacancy: Appointment of Saman Rathnapriya comes 26/01/2020 Sunday Observer Link under fire 10/02/2020 TNLRN News Radio සමාජදේ 뷒귔වට ආගක නාෙකෙන්දේ මැ뷒හත්වීම ම뷒 Link 10/02/2020 TNLRN News Radio Clergy urged to play role to change the political culture Link Social media during national polls: FB urged to consider candidate's 22/02/2020 Ceylon Today Link code of conduct and media guidelines 24/02/2020 TNLRN News Radio මැ뗒සබෙට ආ ජනප්‍ෙ ච කල දසේවෙ ගැන CMEV වාේ ාවක්බ හෙ Link අ뗒න් ිෙෙක්බ පාේිදේන්ුවට පැෆරල් සංවිධානෙ හා මාේු 12 ේ්‍ොපාරෙ 24/02/2020 Lanka Leads News Link හදව…! 24/02/2020 Lanka News Web පාේිදේන්ු ආ ජනප්‍ෙ ච වල පැටි槒ෙ දහාෙන්න ෙ ! Link 24/02/2020 UTV News පාේිදේන්ුවට පිවිි ජනප්‍ෙ ච කල දසේවෙ ගැන වාේ ාවක්බ සකස Link 26/02/2020 Sitha FM ATHTHADA - MANJULA GAJANAYAKA 2020 02 27 Link 02/03/2020 Ada Derana LIVE මැ뗒වරණ කාලදේ뷓 අදපක්බෂකො සහ ජන ාවදේ හැිම Link 03/03/2020 NewsFirst Sri Lanka අත්ව ෙවස | Dawasa, 03/03/2020 Link 03/03/2020 Mawbima සැබෑ ජන ා දසේවකෙන් ද ෝරා පත්වකරග Link 03/03/2020 CMEV සැබෑ ජන ා දසේවකෙන් ද ෝරාග! Link 14/03/2020 TNLRN News Radio EC must decide on the General Election-CMEV Link ඡන්ෙෙ කල්ොනවානේ කළ ු දේ ගැන මැ뗒වරණ 엒ෂකන්දගන් පැහැ뷒ᗒ 14/03/2020 Colombo Times Link 槒මක්බ. 14/03/2020 Deshaya ඡන්දෙට පිටදපාට ගසන 엒ක්බෂණ සංවිධාන Link 16/03/2020 TNLRN News Radio Monitors 'concerned' over talks of Poll delay Link 16/03/2020 TNLRN News Radio මැ뗒වරණ 뷒නෙ ගැන 뗓රණෙක්බ ගන්න කින් පක්බෂ සමග සාකච්ඡා කරන්න ... Link Elections monitoring body calls for postponement of General 17/03/2020 The Morning Link Elections 17/03/2020 The Sunday Times CMEV calls for postponement of General Elections Link 18/03/2020 Economy Next CMEV says free and fair elections unlikely under current conditions Link 18/03/2020 News First CMEV urges to postpone general election Link 18/03/2020 The World News CMEV urges to postpone general election Link Free ride on the COVID-19: LG level campaigning for GE ongoing - 19/03/2020 Ceylon Today Link CMEV 19/03/2020 The Island Some politicians campaigning disregarding assurances not to do so Link 20/03/2020 Daily News EC stands to hold elections - Elections Commissioner General Link 20/03/2020 NewsRadio මැ뗒වරණෙ කල් ෙැම කාදලෝචි  -CMEV Link

20/03/2020 Ravaya අදපක්බෂකෙන්ට එදරᇒ අපරාධ වාේ ා ප්‍රිේධ කළ ු Link දකාදරෝනා වසංග අවසේථාදවන් සමහර ඡන්ෙ අදපක්බෂකදෙෝ ප්‍රදෙෝජනෙ 25/03/2020 Lanka Views Link ගන්නවා – මං觔ල ගජනාෙක 01/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio පාේිදේන්ුව කැඳවුවා 槒ො ි뷔වන දවනසක්බ නෑ - CMEV Link 02/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Deployment of graduates for curfew duty condemned Link 03/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio CMEV commends Election Commission Link 03/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio මැ.දකාසම ජනප뗒ට ෙැවූ ිපිෙට CMEV ප්‍රසාෙෙ Link 04/04/2020 Sri Lanka Mirror Monitoring bodies write to EC on distribution of goods by candidates Link 07/04/2020 Info Sri Lanka News සද ාස 槔ᗔබꗔ පැකට් වල ‘දපාදහාට්ු’ ල槔ණ (CMEV) එදකන් පැ귒ි.. Link Watchdog complains to Election Commission on distribution of spice 07/04/2020 NewsHub Link as relief Lanka Sathosa says spices with lotus flower packing will not be taken 08/04/2020 Daily Mirror Link off shelves සද ාස දබෙන 槔ᗔබꗔ පැකට්වල දපාදහාට්ුව ගහලා – මැ뗒වරණ දකාසමට 08/04/2020 ColomboXNews Link පැ귒ල්ලක්බ. සද ාස දබෙන 槔ᗔබꗔ පැකට්වල දපාදහාට්ුව ගහලා – මැ뗒වරණ දකාසමට 08/04/2020 TrueNews Link පැ귒ල්ලක්බ. 08/04/2020 Lanka Team ජරපත්ව දේශපාලනදේ කණදකාක්බ ුෙ - විමල් විරවංශ Link ඇ췒 엓뗒 සමදේ 槔ᗔ බꗔ දබො 뷓දේ뷓 දපාදහාට්ුදේ ලාංඡනෙ සᇒ ඇුමක්බ 08/04/2020 FactCrescendo Link දොොගත්වදත්වෙ? 10/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio විධාෙකෙ සහ මැ뗒වරණ දකාසම අ ර ගැුේ එපා – CMEV Link 10/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Executive must work cooperatively Link 10/04/2020 Info Sri Lanka News විධාෙකෙ සහ මැ뗒වරණ දකාසම අ ර ගැුේ එපා – CMEV Link 10/04/2020 NewsHub විධාෙකෙ සහ මැ뗒වරණ දකාසම අ ර ගැුේ එපා – CMEV Link සහනාධාර දලාක්බඩවුන් දනාදකාට මැ뗒වරණ පැවැත්වීම ප්‍රජා න්ත්ව්‍රවාෙෙට 10/04/2020 Ravaya Link අᇒ කරෙ 13/04/2020 TV One TV One News (Eleciton Observers Join Statement) Link 13/04/2020 TNLRN News Radio ඡන්ෙ 뗒ෙන්න කින් ජන 觓වි ෙ ෙථාවත්ව විෙ ු – 엒ක්බෂණ සංවිධාන Link 13/04/2020 Lanka Web ේ්‍ෙවසේථාමෙ අේුෙෙක්බ කැඳවා දනාග엒 Link 13/04/2020 Samabima 엒ි කලට මැ뗒වරණ පැවැත්වීදමන් “පමණක්බ” ප්‍රජා න්ත්ව්‍රවාෙෙ රැදකෙ? Link 13/04/2020 Ada මැ뗒වරණෙ ගැන 엒ක්බෂණ සංවිධානෙ වින් ඒකාබේධ ප්‍රකාශෙක්බ Link 13/04/2020 Shakthi TV Shakthi TV News (Eleciton Observers Join Statement) Link 13/04/2020 Sirasa TV News First Sirasa News First Sinhala (Eleciton Observers Join Statement) Link 13/04/2020 Anidda දේ දමාදහාදත්ව ඡන්ෙෙක්බ එපා ිෙ මැ뗒වරණ 엒ක්බෂකදෙෝ 槒ෙ뗒 Link 14/04/2020 Lanka News Web දගෝෙ ේ්‍ෙසනෙක්බ හදේ ේ්‍ෙවසේථාමෙ අේුෙෙක්බ ඇ뗒 දනාීමට නේ Link 14/04/2020 Lanka News Web To prevent the Constitutional Crisis amid a Pandemic.. Link 15/04/2020 The Island NGOs pressure govt. to resolve polls issue urgently Link දකාදරෝනා මැෙ ඡන්ෙ 뗒ො හා엒ෙක්බ වුදනාත්ව වග槓ම දේශපාලඥන් භාරග 15/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Link ු 18/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio CMEV condemns politicization of relief aid Link 19/04/2020 Lankadeepa දකාදරෝනා දලාව퇔රා මැ뗒වරණ 30 ක්බ කල් ෙම Link 22/04/2020 Ceylon Today CMEV urges revision of election campaigning rules Link 22/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Not an apt environment for an election-CMEV Link 22/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio 뷒නෙක්බ 엒ෙම වුනත්ව ඡන්ෙෙකට ු뷔ු වටපිටාවක්බ රදට් නෑ – CMEV Link Polls monitor tells EC/authorities: Create level playing field for 23/04/2020 Ceylon Today Link campaigning candidates

මැ뗒වරණ පවත්වවා සැනදසෙ - වැනදසෙ? - පාේිදේන්ු මැ뗒වරණෙ 24/04/2020 Wediwistara.com Link කැඳීදේ සමසේ ක ාව 28/04/2020 Ceylon Today Polls monitors urge EC: Assess situ with health authorities Link 29/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Advance Voting System best suited for elections Link 29/04/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Advanced Voting System ලංකාවටත්ව ? Link 02/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio 엒ක්බෂණ සංවිධාන මැ.දකා හදවන්න සැරදස Link 02/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Monitoring bodies to hold talks with NEC Link 02/05/2020 V FM News මැ뗒වරණ දකාසම සහ පක්බෂ 엒දෙෝ角 ෙන් අ ර අෙ විදශේෂ සාකච්ඡාවක්බ Link 03/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio මහ ඡන්ෙෙ 觖엒 20 බැනේ 뷒න 14 කට පු දවනත්ව 뷒නෙක? Link 03/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio EC can amend election date if needed -CMEV Link 05/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio ජනප뗒වරණ 엓뗒 කැꗓේ ගැන මැ뗒වරණ දකාසම 엒හඩ – CMEV Link 05/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio EC yet to respond to 2019 election complaints Link 08/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio මැ뗒වරණ 엒ක්බෂණ කටු 槒දේ අපහු ාවෙක්බ Link 08/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Election unlikely on 20th June – CMEV Link 12/05/2020 Ceylon Today CMEV to make queries on progress Link ඡන්ෙ ොෙකෙන්දේ දසෞඛ්‍ොරක්බෂාව ගැන දකාසම සහ 엒ක්බෂකෙන් අ ර 14/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Link සාකච්ඡා 14/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio CMEV to help ensure safe environment for voters Link 15/05/2020 Sirasa TV News First 15.05.2020 Sirasa News(Sinhala) Link 15/05/2020 Sirasa TV News First 15.05.2020 Sirasa News(English) Link 15/05/2020 News First Auditor General Launches Investigation into Rs. 5,000 allowance Link මහ මැ뗒වරණ දසෞඛ්‍ෙ මාේදගෝපදේශ ගැන දකාසම හා 엒ක්බෂණ සංවිධාන 16/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Link 퇔ᗔල් සාකච්ඡාවක 16/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio NEC & election monitors discuss safe election conduct Link CMEV: LG heads on leave to contest general election still holding their 18/05/2020 The Island Link posts 19/05/2020 Anidda දල්කේ පත්ව槒ේ 엓뗒 විදරෝ쇓 Link අꗔ විෙෙේ ප්‍රචාරණ උපක්බ්‍රම දකදරᇒ අදපක්බෂකෙන් අවධානෙ දො කළ 20/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Link ු – CMEV 20/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Consider low budget campaign methods-CMEV Link දකාදරෝනා “0” දවනකන් ᇒටිදොත්ව ඡන්ෙෙ 뗒ෙන්න දවන්දන් වසරක්බ – දෙකක්බ 21/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Link ගිොට පසේදසේ 21/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Manage election matters based on health advice Link 23/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio 5000 ගැන ඇම뗒 බන්뷔ල කළ ප්‍රකාශෙ හරුන් එකක්බ Link 23/05/2020 TNLRN NewsRadio Bandula’s statement on Rs.5,000 meaningless Link 23/05/2020 Aljazeera Sri Lanka stares at constitutional crisis as polls delayed Link 23/05/2020 East Auto News Sri Lanka stares at constitutional crisis as polls delayed Link 23/05/2020 Post of Asia Sri Lanka stares at constitutional crisis as polls delayed Link

CMEV Official Website Metrics

Posts made during March 14 – May 22, 2020 period

Site statistics for March 14 – May 22, 2020 period

Total Views and Visitors

Month Views Visitors March 2,547 1,127 April 1,192 503 May 1,146 580

Countrywide Statistics

March April May

CMEV Facebook Page Metrics

Table off all Posts stats (20th March to 22nd May 2020)

Metrics on All Posts (From March 20 to May 22, 2020)