"Mr John Cushnahan, head of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EOM) to Sri Lanka warned on 28 November that if the Sri Lankan government did not implement its recommendations it had made during its three previous missions to Sri Lanka, the EU is likely to reject any future requests from Sri Lanka for election observation, during a packed press conference in Trans Asia Hotel in Colombo. “It has to be said that the EU is clearly frustrated with the lack of follow up to our previous election observation missions. None of the key recommendations for the three previous missions to strengthen the democratic process have been implemented. They have merely been left on the shelf gathering dust,” Mr.Cushnahan said." - EU Election Observation mission in jeopardy, if Colombo ignores recommendations- Cushnahan, 28 October 2005
"...The progressive destruction of the political process in Sri Lanka has led to both domestic and international tolerance of an enormous amount of violence by the government (regardless of party affiliation) against its citizens. Increasingly, it seems that the government of Sri Lanka is accountable to no one - not its citizens, and not its foreign counterparts who rubber-stamped the recent parliamentary elections. In Sri Lanka's current political climate, power seems to be determined by the number of thugs a given politician has at his/her disposal..." Sri Lanka's Elections 2000: Fear and Intimidation Rule the Day - An Observer's Report - Laura Gross
