COLOMBO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's civil war displaced and the victims of the Indian ocean Tsunamis are denied the right to vote at this week's local council election, an independent election watch dog said here Monday.

    People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) Executive Director Kingsley Rodrigo told reporters "hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced by the war in the north and east and the tsunami disaster are residing outside their permanent residences. There are no provisions under the Local Authorities Elections Act to make facilities to cast their votes at other places."

    Sri Lanka goes to polls on Thursday to elect representatives to local councils numbering 330. However no elections would be held for councils in the war battered north and east regions. These elections have been held back by six months citing security fears.

    "Local elections in those areas have been postponed for the second time. No local elections have been held there since 1998. Therefore the voters in these areas are continuously losing the opportunity of participation in solving their problems at village level", Rodrigo said.

    PAFFREL's monitoring had shown that Thursday's election run up had been the least violent compared with the two previous major elections - the 2004 parliamentary election and the Presidential election held in November 2005.

    PAFFREL recommends amending of election laws to facilitate a fair media coverage of elections as the present experience is that the state and the private media are showing bias towards the government and the opposition in that order. Enditem