COLOMBO, Nov. 14, (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission (EOM) has arrived in Sri Lanka to monitor Saturday's presidential elections, and to analyse social media usage and fake news, said local media on Thursday.
EOM Chief Observer Marisa Matias told journalists that the analysis of social media and fake news was still new to the organisation but they would be devoting a lot of attention to it.
Matias said the data would be published for use in Sri Lanka's future polling.
According to EOM Deputy Chief Officer Dimitra Ioannou, this is the sixth time the EU observers will be monitoring elections in Sri Lanka, following their observations for the polls in previous years .
The organization arrived in Sri Lanka on Oct. 22 at the request of Sri Lanka's Elections Commission.
A total of 80 election observers from member states of the EU have been deployed across all nine of Sri Lanka's provinces.
