Foreign monitors for Sri Lanka polls

Sri Lanka Tuesday said it will invite foreign monitors to witness the presidential election in January.

Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said he would, however, not invite UN election monitors, Xinhua reported.

He told reporters that UN monitors play a role only if an election is being held for the first time or if there were serious concerns over the electoral process.

Dishapriya said that usually election monitors from Asia, the European Union and the Commonwealth were invited to see a major election.

The Jan 8 election will be mainly a contest between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former minister Maithripala Sirisena.