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Govt. flinging State resources into Uva campaign
Vehicles belonging to ministries, corporations and departments have been observed in the Moneragala and Badulla districts amid complaints of misuse of state property and resources in campaigning for the Uva Provincial Council polls due in less than two weeks.
The Human Rights Commission (HRC) on Thursday summoned Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya and four other senior State sector officials and ordered them to reduce the use of state employees in campaigning but opposition parties said they had yet to see the implementation of the orders.
Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya holds his head on seeing journalists as he leaves the Human Rights Commission office on Thursday. Pic by Indika Handuwala
HRC chief Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa also said the Elections Commissioner had instructed police to provide security for election meetings if required and had asked police to strengthen general security by establishing night patrol units and road barriers.
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) propaganda secretary Vijitha Herath, said his party welcomed the HRC decision to prevent state officials from engaging in political campaign activities.
“Samurdhi officers from other districts of the country have arrived in the province to get involved in campaigning throughout the weekend,” he said.
A State mobile vehicle seen engaged in blatant election propaganda work playing a recorded speech made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa
He said some Samurdhi officers had complained to him that they were forced to attend to these meetings and had been given food and accommodation by the army.
He also said that on Thursday, two JVP offices in Haputale and Koslanda had been attacked by supporters of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
“None of the UPFA offices in the province hasbeen attacked, which shows who is behind all the attacks,” Mr Herath said.
“Most of the violence is happening in Moneragala because the former chief minister and candidate Sasheendra Rajapaksa is contesting there as district leader,” the JVP official alleged.
He accused President Mahinda Rajapaksa of using his Presidential powers to the maximum to gain popular support for his party.
“Sasheendra Rajapaksa is participating with the President government-funded programmes such as opening technological laboratories in
Who and what are they doing? A group of unidentified people on campaign work. Pic by Moneragala correspondent
schools. This is unethical and illegal. Who is there to complain about this?” he asked.
United National Party (UNP) leadership council chairman Karu Jayasuriya also alleged the Government was using state machinery to win the election.
“They are distributing goodies and other household items to the people to get more preferential votes [and are also] using state workers to engage in campaign activities,” he said.
National Freedom Front (NFF) spokesman Mohamed Muzammil said most of the instances of violence in Uva were exaggerated by the opposition parties.
“Just a couple of violent incidents happened; sometimes the same incident was recorded twice,” he said.
The Network for Election Monitoring of the Intellectuals for Human Rights (NEM-IHR), on Friday said it received a complaint that officials of 
the National Lotteries Board (NLB), with board vehicles, had been taking part in the campaign activities of the SLFP’s Moneragala office.
NLB General Manager Nalaka Kaluwewe denied this, claiming the officials were simply following normal practice in going from to door to door to sell lottery tickets.
“We do team visits to the villages to reach the people. This is not happening only in Moneragala – we are doing this kind of activities in Hambantota and Ratnapura districts also,” he said.
The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said the Badulla Main Post Office had received an unprecedented glut of mail linked to the elections.
There were up to about 150,000 letters a day in communications from candidates and from elections-related agencies such as the Department of Elections.