The Government of Japan has provided a grant worth US$ 47,019 (approximately Rs.8.5 million) for “The Project for Sustaining Democratization through the Implementation of Free and Fair Election in Sri Lanka” under its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP).

The Grant Contract in this regard was signed on 22 July 2020 at the Ambassador’s Residence between Kitamura Toshihiro, Charge d’Affaires ad interim, Embassy of Japan in Sri Lanka and Rohana Hettiarachchi, Executive Director, People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), the Japanese Embassy said in a media release.

Under this project, PAFFREL, as a leading local election monitoring organization, will carry out election-related activities on neutral ground so that the upcoming general election on August 5 will be conducted freely and fairly.

The project includes training programs for 460 election observers to be deployed in each polling and counting station nationwide. The voter education will be also conducted through multimedia platforms such as TV, new papers, and radio to encourage the people of Sri Lanka to exercise their franchise in a free and fair manner despite the global pandemic of COVID-19.

Japan, as a long-standing friend of Sri Lanka, has been extending its support to PAFFREL for the last two decades to facilitate the consolidation of democracy in Sri Lanka. Japan also reiterates its solidarity to the country in its combat against COVID-19.

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