However, election time offers suicide bombers a golden opportunity. The dates and times of rallies are public knowledge, with thousands of posters being plastered on walls everywhere announcing them. The names of prominent politicians who would be attending each rally are also prominently displayed on the posters. It is a simple matter for suicide bombers to mingle with the crowds at a rally, with thousands of people milling around, and the general din of music, firecrackers, speeches and slogans. With party thugs controlling events at rallies, police generally shy away from keeping a close watch on what is happening.
Politicians also spend a lot of time at each rally.
All this provides the ideal opportunity for any suicide bomber. Despite all the warnings by intelligence and police, politicians still offer themselves as inviting targets, simply because it is their job to get themselves and their party elected. Every election campaign in the last decade has seen the assassination of at least one top politician. The last one, the Presidential Election of December 1999. Saw the assassination of the UNP's Lucky Algama, the former army chief of staff who would have been tipped for a high post in the defence ministry had the UNP candidate been elected president.