DailyMirror
The election authorities say they have received information regarding the 64 marked presidential election ballot papers, which were found in Ratnapura, a member of the committee investigating the incident said yesterday.
“We have still not completed our investigations. When Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake who is presently abroad returns to the country, we will discuss this matter with him further,” he said.
A Committee headed by Northern Province Assistant Elections Commissioner V. Shanmugam has been appointed to probe the incident.
The common opposition candidate General Saratha Fonseka who lost at January 26 presidential election complained to the Elections Commissioner that the ruling UPFA had destroyed ballot papers marked in his favour him, and that the final results were distorted. He is also hoping to file an election petition in Court. Opposition political parties which backed General Fonseka’s candidacy raised this matter in parliament where they displayed some of ballot papers recovered by them from a pile of garbage. UNP parliamentarion Thalatha Atukorale found these ballot papers inside Ratnapura Technical College premises.
Sri Lanka’s Election Law states that at the end of a particular, marked ballot paper bundles should be sealed and stored safely for six months from the date of the election.