COLOMBO, Dec 28, Reuters: Gunmen in Sri Lanka have shot dead 17 people, mostly voters who defied guerrilla warnings against casting ballots in Presidential elections, police said on Wednesday.
“Notices were placed near the bodies of some victims saying they were killed because they voted,” a police official said.
The killings occurred in the past 24 hours in the southern, central and north central provinces and most of the victims were supporters of the Ruling United National Party.
The Marxist People’s Liberation Front (JVP) had threatened to kill anyone who voted in the December 19 poll.
Residents at Minneriya and Polonnaruwa in North Central province said some voters had been ordered to march through town streets with boards hung on their necks saying “this is the punishment for voting.”
“At one place, I saw over 50 people with these notices walking the streets,” one resident said.
Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa of the ruling party won the election, beating his closest rival Sirima Bandaranaike of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
Election Officials said only 55 percent of the nine million electorate went to the polls because of the JVP warning. Voter turnout was particularly low in the south, an IVP stronghold.
The Front, which is trying to overthrow the government, had alleged that the poll would be rigged by the ruling party.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 6, 1989
