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Pending nominations, election law violations set the tone for the PC polls
View(s):The nomination process of candidates to contest the Western and Southern Provincial Council (PC) elections, has inundated Election Monitoring organizations with complaints pertaining to election law violations.
Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFe) Executive Director Keerthi Tennakoon said that, since they started election monitoring activities on January 15, their main focus is on issues relating to the abuse of State property, which often happens at election time.
Beruwala: Off with the posters. Pic by S. Siriwardhena
He said 15 incidents have been brought to their notice since the election was announced, and these include the use of Transport Ministry vehicles by Senal Welgama, Transport Minister Kumar Welgama’s son, for his campaign. “We have written to the Transport Ministry Secretary, requesting him to act against the use of the Ministry’s official vehicles for electioneering,” he said.
CaFFE said it has observed ministry vehicles engaging in electioneering in the Kalutara District to transport people who paste posters, distribute posters and organise election related events.
Mr. Tennakoon also raised concerns regarding the stature of some of the persons who have come forward to contests the polls. “We are concerned that these people are not politically mature to contest for the PC. We have submitted our concerns to the parties, and the ruling party is responding well to this. Our reports indicate that these people won’t be given nominations. However, it is very unfortunate that the UNP is not taking such steps.”
People’s Action For Free & Fair Elections (PAFFREL) Executive Director, Rohana Hettiarachchi, said they too have written to the party secretaries expressing concern about the candidates who are coming forward. “We do not hold the view that no one is fit to be a politician, merely because of his or her relationship to a politician, or being an artiste or a sports star,” he said.
He added that, PAFFREL also wrote to the Human Rights Commission (HRC), urging them to establish a separate unit to investigate and monitor the use of Government power to manipulate the elections. “The HRC agreed to set up two offices in Matara and Colombo. They also agreed to take immediate action on any complaints submitted by us. We believe that this will help us control the situation at this PC election,” he said.
Mr Hettiarachchi added that most former ministers of the dissolved PCs have not handed in their official vehicles yet. “We have written to the chief secretaries of the WP and SP, and we feel that they are doing something to address the matter.”
Political billboards galore in Matara town. Pic by Jeewaka Jayaruk
Finally, he went on to say that PAFFREL had written to the Inspector General of the Police (IGP) N.K lllangakoon, urging the police need to be impartial in dealing with violations of election laws.
Meanwhile, Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said that he will announce the poll’s date after nominations close on February 6.
“These two are big provinces, with around 4 million registered voters in the WP and around 2 million in the SP, We will be setting up around 5,000 polling booths,” the Commissioner said.
He added that the estimated cost of the polls to these two PCs is around Rs 1,200 million. Around 2,000 government officials are expected to be deployed for the election.