Sri Lanka: Mobile phone interruptions in East today??

Posted on May 10, 2008 / 3 Comments

Chief ministerial candidate Rauff Hakeem told ‘Lanka Dissent’ that the Ministry of Defence has ordered service providers to interrupt mobile phone services in the Eastern Province, which goes to polls tomorrow (May 10th).

He also said that the government was preparing to stage a massive vote rigging on election day and the move seems to prevent the outside world from getting information on those violations in the East.

As a former Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mr. Hakeem said the Defence Ministry could give such orders only on matters pertaining to national security.

The chief ministerial candidate added that he would initiate legal action against any service provider and other responsible officials if such undue interruptions are effected tomorrow.

http://www.lankadissent.com/allnews/2008_05_09_12_news.htm

3 Comments

chanuka
May 10, 2008, 9:18 am
This is unconfirmed news, but we publish here because if true it is a serious policy issue.

Please feel free to discuss.
Sanjana
May 10, 2008, 11:50 am
The Centre for Monitoring Elections Violence (CMEV) has called upon the Elections Commissioner to take action to prevent this from happening. See http://cmev.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/cmev-bulletin-of-9th-may-2008-2200hrs-1st-release/
Anand Varghese
May 20, 2008, 12:59 am
I have a question: now that the election is over, do we have any confirmed reports that cell phone networks were in fact blocked? Thanks.