Majority of candidates respond to Campaign Finance laws

The majority of the candidates who contested the last Parliamentary elections have complied with the Finance Campaign laws and  handed over their financial statements keeping with the laws, an Election  campaign Finance laws as the deadline ended on Friday.

Of  8,888   candidates who contested Parliamentary election 7,846 candidates had handed over their financial statements with more statements due to come in through registered post, an official said.

According to official figures, 1,042 candidates need to submit their statements.

But,  with few statements due via registered post the response to campaign finance laws was considered positive, officials said.

A last- minute rush was experienced with candidates and parties to submit their statements in keeping with campaign finance law deadline, an election official said yesterday.

 Statements related to 493  parties too had been received by Friday,

The Chairman of the Election Commission  R.M.A.L.Ratanayake  explaining the process said 'We can only prepare this report and make it available for the public to review. If there are any issues, they can lodge a complaint with the police or the ECSL. Since this act was introduced suddenly, we have identified some loopholes. While adjustments are being made, amendments to the act will likely be considered after two or three more elections rather than immediately.'

He explained, 'The act specifies a special format for submitting these reports, and we educated all party secretaries twice before the election on the process for filing the Election Campaign Income and Expenses Report. As with the presidential election, the police will take action against those who fail to submit their reports to the EC. In fact, 13 cases were filed regarding non-compliance in the presidential election.'"

However, in practice, handling a large number of cases can be challenging, even for the police, as this is not their only responsibility," Mr. Rathnayake added.

By Ishu Bandara