Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has told Police Chief Mahinda Balasuriya that he will not be sending any further communications asking him to ensure that the country’s election laws are upheld because of the continuing failure on the part of the police to do so.
The Elections Chief’s comments came in the wake of rising incidents of election-related violence throughout the country with two deaths reported this week.
At a meeting held with the Advisory Committee of Presidential candidates on Tuesday, the Elections Commissioner said that despite his letters to the Police Chief the number of election law violation had only increased.
In the circumstances, he asked political parties not to send any more complaints to him and recommended the repeal of Section 74 of the Presidential Election Act.
Section 74 contains the provisions relating to restrictions placed on the display of handbills, posters, photographs of candidates etc for promoting the election during the period begining from the day of the nomination till the day after the poll.
The section empowers any police officer to take such steps or use such force as maybe reasonably necessary to prevent any contravention of these laws. Police are also empowered to remove such material used in an illegal manner.
At the same meeting the Elections Chief slammed Ministry Secretaries for ignoring his appeals to ensure state vehicles, buildings and employees were not used for the advantage of one candidate.
He said he had written to all Ministry Secretaries and Chief Secretaries of the Provincial Councils on December 8, asking them not to violate the constitution but that these persons were trying to protect their own jobs.
He told party representatives that he was therefore unable to act on any complaints relating to the misuse of state properties and state employees as well.
The Commissioner also said Advisory Committee meetings were held to resolve problems of the candidates and explain the procedures followed by the Elections Department. However since it was not possible to get the desired results, the meeting would not be held in future.
However after an appeal by the representatives, the next meeting was fixed for January 19.
The minutes of the Advisory Committee were filed as a document in the fundamental rights petition by Presidential candidate Gen (retd) Sarath Fonseka against the state-owned media.
The petition alleged that the state media had violated guidelines issued by the Elections Commissioner. The case was taken up on Friday. Upul Jayasuriya, the counsel for the petitioner, in his submissions said the state media had blatantly violated the guidelines laid down by the Elections Commissioner.The Supreme Court instructed the media to follow the guidelines issued by the Elections Commissoner.
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