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Don’t conduct mock polls, you may end up in jail
View(s):Institution heads will be held responsible for allowing employees to take part in mock polls aimed at testing the popularity of candidates and would be liable to a jail term and fine, the National Elections Commission warned yesterday.
Elections Commissioner General Saman Ratnayake said the warning came in the wake of some of the private institutions and tuition classes conducting mock polls among their employees and students and announcing the results.
He said the owner of the institution or the head of it could be liable for a three year jail term and a fine of Rs 200,000 if found guilty.
“We are carrying out investigations regarding institutions which have already conducted such polls in the past few weeks,” Mr Ratnayake said.
He said prohibition of conducting mock polls had been introduced under the Presidential Act as announcement of such results could influence the voter in advance believing that a particular candidate was more popular than the other.
Some of the results and pictures of mock polls conducted already had been shared in the social media.
Mr Ratnayake said that NEC usually did not even start counting the postal vote result before the election was concluded as it could have an influence on the voters.