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Watchdogs powerless to stop most campaign violations
View(s):More than 170 complaints of abuse of state property for election propaganda have been received by the Organisation for Protection of Public Resources set up by Transparency International-Sri Lanka.
TISL Executive Director S. Ranugge said his organisation had taken up these complaints with the Elections Commissioner and that through his intervention some of the incidents had stopped.
A Government programme to distribute across the country religious attire (sil redhi) costing more than Rs. 1,000 million was undoubtedly election campaigning by the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), Mr. Ranugge said.
“These garments are being distributed through Buddhist temples in every area. We have requested the chief incumbents of those temples not to do so but it continues,” he said.
Another violation was a programme to distribute free mobile phones through a programme known as Kalaguna.
“Mobile phones were distributed to pensioners in association with Mobitel all across the country. This programme is jointly carried out by four institutions: the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs, Sri Lanka Youth, Sri Lanka Telecom and Mobitel,” Mr . Ranugge said.
“Following the Elections Commissioner’s instruction it was cancelled in many parts of the country.
“In some areas, however, politicians hold meetings inepartments and issue mobile phones as gifts,” he added. “Cabinet ministers, political representatives of the government and divisional secretaries have also attended these functions.”
The use of buses belonging to the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB), which comes directly under the Ministry of Transport, has been one of the most glaring abuses of state property in the presidential election campaign, he said.
The buses have been used to transport the public to all the major rallies held to date to canvass support for the UPFA candidate, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In most cases, these buses have been obtained without any payment to the relevant depots. Investigations by TISL have shown that this use of buses costs the Ministry a staggering loss of Rs. 8 million daily.
Even though the Transportation Minister stated that payments had been made in advance for the use of these buses, queries made to the depots in Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Horowupotana and Kekirawa revealed that no such payments had been made.
For Mr. Rajapaksa’s campaign rally in Jaffna on Friday, around 450 SLTB buses had been directed north from various parts of the country, the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said.
Some normal bus schedules had been disrupted as buses were redeployed for the rally, causing inconvenience to commuters in the northern region.
Northern Regional Operational Manager S. Askar told the Sunday Times there was a shortage in public transport services due to the allocation of buses to transport people for the Jaffna rally.