Deshapriya urges to distance religion from politics ; says will resign after poll

Election Commission (EC) Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya today (Nov 11) said he would make an open request to all presidential candidates tomorrow to distance religion from politics.

Addressing what he said would be his last press conference as EC Chairman, Deshapriya observed that numerous complaints have been received against the conduct of certain religious leaders with regard to the poll.

Commenting on this year’s election, the polls chief suggested it would have been better if certain media outlets had abided by the media regulations set out by the EC for the election.

He expressed disappointment that some state officers who do not enjoy political rights had engaged in political activities.

However, the polls chief noted that the EC had been able to prevent former police and military personnel engaged in politics, to avoid “exerting undue influence” on their former security units. “I feel they too didn’t conduct themselves that way,” he said.

Deshapriya said he would handover his letter of resignation as EC Chairman, along with the EC’s interim report on the Presidential election, to the next President.

He said he hopes that the results could be released by 6 pm tomorrow. “If we are unable to do that, we will definitely release it before 6 pm on November 18 (Monday), even if we have to count preferential votes,” the EC Chairman said.

He observed that the EC’s Complaint Management Unit had received 4769 complaints since declaring the final list of presidential candidates. Out of them 42 had been based on violence while 4610 had been based on law violations.

“Today we received (complaints) only on seven incidents of violence, 248 instances of law violations, and three other complaints,” he noted.