News
Polls violations around 1,500 but situation peaceful: Monitors
- Complaints mainly of assaults, misuse of State resources
- Elections chief, Police praised for taking firm action
STF checking vehicles in Colombo city. Pic by M.D. Nissanka
As campaigning for the elections closed on Friday midnight election monitors reported that they received around 1,500 complaints during the run up to the poll, but the situation has been peaceful compared to previous elections.
The number of complaints received by separate election monitoring groups differed.
During the campaign, police arrested over 700 persons for election-related offences after receiving 310 complaints, since the dissolution of Parliament and conducting their own investigations into 247 poll violations. Commenting on the pre-polls situation, election watchdogs attribute the peaceful atmosphere to the efforts taken both by the Police and the Elections Commissioner.
“The Police have worked tirelessly removing posters, cut-outs and arresting polls law violators. Apart from that the Elections Commissioner was quick to inquire into the complaints put to him, carrying out swift inquiries, warning the candidates and informing the relevant authorities where the need arose,” Transparency International’s Shan Wijetunge said.
Despite the ‘peaceful atmosphere’ however, the complaints still keep coming in. Both the monitoring bodies as well as the Elections Department have stated that a majority of complaints received concern the misuse of State resources and the violation of electoral laws.
Ballot boxes being loaded into a vehicle. Pic by Indika Handuwala
According to Transparency International a majority of complaints received by it – 289 cases- related to the misuse of State resources. “We also have reports that there are more than 300 State owned vehicles being used for campaigning. These vehicles are gradually being handed back,” Mr. Wijetunge said.
He added that the coming days will be the most decisive and urged the candidates not to conduct any form of campaigning under the guise of hosting private parties or taking part in a religious ceremony. Meanwhile the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) has reported 1,682 incidents to date. The figure is made up from a total 111 cases of election related violence and 1571 cases of electoral law violations.
Colombo District has recorded the highest number of cases with 354 cases from the district. The Kurunegala and Gampaha Districts have also reported a high number of cases with 117 and 114 cases respectively. The election watchdog also stated that of the total figure, 121 cases could be categorised as major incidents. These include several assaults and the misuse of State resources.
Nevertheless CaFFE Executive director Keerthi Tennakoon maintained that the scale of violence, considering the gravity of the situation, was relatively low in comparison with the elections held in the recent past. “We won’t call this a commendable pre-election scenario. Nevertheless we have come very close to one,” he said.
“The people see the law enforcement taking place, they see justice being done to the perpetrators and that is also one of the reasons why we receive so many complaints,” he added. CaFFE has also identified several areas where possible violence could arise on Election Day. The areas include Mannar, Puttalam, Kaluthara, Batticaloa, Minuwangoda, Aluthgama, Vavuniya, Kandy, Kalpitiya and Akkaraipattu.
Policemen in Habaraduwa get ready to set out on duty yesterday. Pic by Amila Gamage
“We have urged the Police to provide additional security to these areas,” Mr. Tennakoon said.People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) has reported 1170 incidents of election violations, since the dissolution of Parliament. The figure is made up of 185 acts of violence, 135 cases relating to the misuse of State sector resources and the abuse of power, besides 850 incidents of other violations.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi stated that PAFFREL sees a change in the present political culture. “For the first time, we noticed the candidates and their supporters going on door-to-door campaigns. This is good because in this way the voters get a better chance of presenting their issues,” he said.
Commenting on the pre-polls situation, Mr. Hettiarachchi added that ten people were hospitalised this week following several clashes that occurred between political parties. “A majority of these incidents relate to physical assaults and attacks carried on election offices. We have reports that a total of 70 individuals were hospitalised since the dissolution of Parliament,” he said.
Meanwhile around 31,000 officials will be deployed on polls duty, the election monitors say. These include 12,000 officials from PAFFREL, 8,700 from CaFFE and 10,300 officers from other monitoring bodies. A total of 200 foreign monitors will be present on election day as well.
