News
Police unit to work with polls chief to deal with complaints
A Special Police unit headed by a Deputy Inspector General is to be set up at the Election Secretariat to coordinate with the Commissioner of Elections in a fresh move to act on complaints during the polls campaign, a senior official of the department said.
The move follows a request by Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya.
The special police unit headed by an Assistant Superintendent will have a team in every district and will include a Chief Inspector with at least 10 police officers. The number of members of the team will be increased depending on the requirement.
The police personnel will be selected from different districts to avoid the political pressure they might face in their own districts, the official said.
He said the DIG would work along with the Elections Commissioner to take action on complaints received by the Elections Secretariat.
The district level teams will work with Assistant Elections Commissioners at the district level.
Parallel to the new setup, a Complaints Investigation Unit under a DIG has started functioning.
The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), an election monitoring body, earlier called on the Elections Commissioner to ask for the setting up of a special police unit that is answerable directly to him.
PAFFREL’s Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi said they had urged the Commissioner to enforce the election laws and use his police powers to ensure a fair election.