We arrived in Colombo earlier yesterday morning after a previous 24 hours without sleep so yesterday was a bit disorientating to say the least. Too tired to sleep. So I visited Caritas Sri Lanka and caught up with old friends there. It seems from all reports that the Presidential elections are a very close fight, with the focus on the latter. Violence is supposedly springing out all over, but that doesn't seem to be remarkably different to former elections and possibly less violent than most.
There are 4 international monitors so far in our team and apparently some 12 Nepalese students, already here, who'll join in. It is forecast that the Eastern Province is going to be most volatile so that's where we'll go and the four of us break up into one man teams, each with a small band of local assistances and translators. Tomorrow we'll have our briefing and then set off for the 4 to 5 hours journey East (actually more like 8 or 9 hours) then back to Colombo for debriefing on the 27th or 28th. It is likely, but not sure, that the 27th will be curfew to try and prevent any violent excesses following the polling day on the 26th.
We'll see!
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