News
Legal action against election law violators, campaign relatively peaceful
With nearly 150 election law violators arrested within the past four weeks, Police have completed investigations into five of the incidents and forwarded reports to the Attorney General’s Department to take legal action. The AG’s advice has been sought in cases involving the conduct of illegal political parades, three of them in Kandy, and one each in Avissawella and Gampaha, the Sunday Times learns.
The Kandy incident involves three candidates, two from the UNP and one from the UPFA. Most of those arrested had been involved in cases such as physical altercations, vandalising property and putting up posters. Many are out on bail after being produced in court, a police officer said.
However, despite the large number of arrests, election monitoring groups say the campaign for the August 17 general elections has been less violent while the number of cases of violation of election laws was also low compared to the previous elections.
An Elections Department official said they had received more than 500 complaints, including three incidents of violence and 504 cases of election law violations.
The department had probed these complaints and would take action in cases where there was evidence of wrongdoing, he said.
A senior police officer said the Elections Department had given Rs. 75 million to the police to recruit people to remove posters and cutouts across the island.
“We received complaints of three assaults in the Kumburupitiya, Ratnapura and Hambantota areas. The other complaints relate to incidents of threats to officials, bribes and the misuse of state resources and state media,” an official said.
Yesterday the polls monitoring group People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), said it had received 389 incidents of complaints of election law violations. These included 28 acts of election violence, 74 violations relating to the abuse of state power, resources and the misuse of state employees and 287 incidents of other forms of election law violations.
“The most recent assault case that we got to know of was reported from Peradeniya. Here a supporter of the Democratic Party is alleged to have been brutally assaulted by a group of UPFA supporters,” PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi said.
He said PAFFREL had also received reports of nine other assault cases, of which seven had been confirmed.
“In comparison with the past elections, the present scenario is fairly ok. Thus far we have had no reports of any killings and only six have been hospitalised so far,” Mr. Hettiarachchi said. He said PAFFREL was focusing attention on the Kandy, Badulla and Rathnapura districts because of several incidents there though not on a large scale.
He expressed concern over reports of voters being bribed. “Some 1,000 job opportunities have been provided on a provincial and national level. We’ve also had reports of 45 cases where bribes have been given to supporters. The Elections Commissioner should take steps to check this situation,” he said.
He said the people also had a responsibility to choose well and choose wisely. “We are electing members to Parliament, which is the supreme law making authority of the country. The people whom we elect should have a proper education and experience. The people need to keep this in mind and not give into bribes,” Mr. Hettiarachchi added.
Election watchdog Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) has recorded 521 cases to date. These include 23 incidents of violence and 498 cases of election law violations. CaFFE said the Colombo, Hambantota and Kurunegala Districts had the highest levels of election violations.
CaFFe Executive Director Keerthi Tennakoon, however, said the quick intervention of the police and the Elections Commissioner had ensured that the situation was under some form of control.
He said the complaints received for this election were comparatively lower than those received during previous elections.