In a bid to grant people the right to cast their vote at the Presidential polls on November 16, the Department for Registration of Persons has decided to issue a ‘special letter’ to persons who have applied for the National Identity Card (NIC) and not received it yet, the Election Commission (EC) said in a statement.
The letter consisting of NIC particulars - name, address, NIC number and photograph of the holder will be issued to all who applied for NICs up to November 8.
The letter will be recognized by the EC as a valid document used for voter identification at the polls.
However, other than the NIC and this special letter a valid passport, driving license, Government pensioner’s identity card, Elder’s identity card, Bikkhu/ Priest identity card issued by the Department for Registration of Persons and the temporary identity card issued by the EC are considered as official documents to prove one’s identity at the elections.
Meanwhile, research conducted by the Centre for Human Rights and Research (Sri Lanka) recently revealed that more than 500,000 Sri Lankans do not possess an NIC.
Acting Executive Director of the Centre, Surangi Ariyawanse at a workshop held in Colombo highlighted that about 100,000 out of the 500,000 people without NICs, do not submit their NICs when it is needed, aiming to hide their identity.
“The rest do not possess NICs due to different reasons such as the inability of providing basic documents required for NIC, not having a permanent address and loss of NICs. It was also revealed that 87 per cent of the NIC-less people live in estate and rural areas” she said.