Security boosted for Sri Lankan president and prime minister ahead of vote

Security for Sri Lanka's president and prime minister has been stepped up by 50 percent ahead of next month's snap parliamentary elections, the island's police chief said Friday.
"Where we had 50 men deployed to protect the president and the prime minister, now we would have 75," police Inspector-General Indra de Silva told reporters here.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga lost an eye in a suicide bombing during the 1999 presidential election campaign, while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe escaped a bomb attack during the December 2001 parliamentary ballot.
De Silva would not be drawn on why the improved security measures were being introduced but police sources said a damaging split in the Tamil Tiger rebel movement had in part prompted the decision.
The sources said police feared that politicians could be hit by unknown attackers to shift the blame to one of the Tiger groups.
Campaigning for the April 2 election has been overshadowed by the unprecedented rift in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel group, which is not directly contesting the election but has put up proxy candidates.
However, de Silva said the level of violence in the campaign this year was far lower than that recorded during the December 2001 parliamentary election.
"There is better enforcement of election laws by the police and that in turn has ensured fewer cases of criminal activity," the police chief said.
Official figures show that 559 election-related offences had been recorded in the past month, compared with 1,047 cases during the corresponding period in the 2001 ballot. Independent poll monitors have reported at least three election-related killings since nominations opened over a month ago, but police said they have classified only one of the cases as a poll-related murder.
The April 2 vote is the first election conducted since the police department was brought under the independent Police Commission, which has taken away the powers of politicians to interfere with the law enforcement agency.
"Even the inspector general can't transfer a constable without the approval of the police commission," a senior officer said. "That is one reason why police are doing their job impartially in most places."