News
Chanda Salli Meetare: Campaign cash of candidates go online for voter scrutiny
View(s):For the first time in Sri Lanka, six prominent election observers have launched an online tool to track presidential election campaign spending by the candidates.
The groups consist of the Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), Hashtag Generation, and the Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies (IRES).
The website, “Chanda Salli Meetare”(Campaign Finance Meter) aims to advocate for the effective implementation of the Regulation of Election Expenditure Act of 2023, empower citizens with vital information to make informed voting decisions, ensure a level-playing field among presidential candidates, and foster a free, fair and inclusive electoral environment that upholds democratic values, the TISL said.
It was launched on Friday at BMICH in Colombo in the presence of the commission members and the Commissioner General of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, presidential candidates and their representatives, political party representatives, diplomatic missions and civil society organisations. Nadishani Perera, executive director of TISL, Manjula Gajanayake, executive director of IRES, Saman Sri Ratnayake, commissioner general of EC, Rohana Hettiarachchi, executive director of PAFFREL, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of Center for Policy Alternatives, Manas Makeen, executive director of CaFFE, and Darshatha Gamage, Specialist – Elections and Information Integrity at Hashtag Generation, addressed the gathering.
It is designed to contribute to the long-term goals of promoting transparency and accountability in Sri Lanka’s electoral processes.
By increasing public awareness of the role of money in election campaigns and its influence on voter decisions, it encourages citizen engagement in campaign finance observation through the dedicated website ‘www.chandasallimeetare.lk’.
The website displays presidential candidates’ profiles with insights on their campaign expenditure broken down into selected cost categories namely; mainstream media, social media, billboards and cutouts, public events, press conferences, launch ceremonies, and campaign offices. The profiles may include the candidates’ asset declarations, election manifesto, and links to external resources to view their parliament performance etc., if available publicly.
The campaign expenditure is calculated based on pre-determined minimum average costs and formulas for each category. In addition to dedicated monitoring of social media and mainstream media-based campaigning, election observers will be deployed across the country by the election watchdogs to gather information on ground-level election expenditures.
The website allows citizens to also provide information about campaign activities.
A secretariat, which consists of a team of campaign finance experts and an IT specialist, has been set up to handle the back-end system of the tool. All data submitted by election observers and citizens will be verified before they are made publicly available through the “Chanda Salli Meetare”.
The law requires all election candidates and parties to submit their returns (financial reports) after the election to the Election Commission. Financial data in the returns could be compared with the collective findings of the campaign finance observations by the election monitors and reported through the website.
The scope of observations of expenditure will be limited to a selected number of key cost categories that can be monitored by these organisations and therefore, will not reflect the entirety of each candidate’s expenditure. The tool, which will be first used at the presidential election, is expected to be adapted and extended to later elections as well, the TISL said.
The launch of the website at the BMICH
Election observers have appealed to the public to get involved and support this process to track the expenditures of candidates, by submitting information on campaign activities in their respective areas, through the website which can be accessed through mobile phones, or computers.
They have also called upon all presidential candidates to adhere to campaign expenditure laws.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!