DailyMirror
The removal of illegal propaganda cutouts, posters and banners has not been done satisfactorily with the situation in some districts being even worse, an election monitoring group said yesterday.
“Election cutouts, posters and banners are still to be seen prominently displayed in Kegalle, Matale, Ratnapura, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa and in nearly the whole of the Southern province,” Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) spokesman Keerthi Tennekoon said.
He blamed the police and the assistant elections commissioners of the districts for having failed to remove these illegal cutouts, posters and banners despite the Elections Chief Dayananda Dissanayake’s order for their removal.
Mr. Tennekoon said election laws were being blatantly violated in most parts of Sri Lanka.
“The opposition is not being allowed to conduct its election campaign peacefully and without hindrance,” he said and added that in Dambulla and Laggala even the police officers were seen taking part in campaigning for UPFA candidates. Mr. Tennekoon said however the situation in Ampara was quite satisfactory with all concerned upholding election laws to a satisfactory level.
“All election propaganda material has been removed in Ampara with the election violations reported to be at a minimum level,” he said.
People’s Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) spokesman Rohana Hettiarachchi said the police could not be blamed alone as political parties too should act responsibly and ethically.
He said a substantial amount of banners; cutouts and posters were still to be seen in most of the main towns of the country even though Police Chief Mahinda Balasuriya had assured that the illegal propaganda material was being removed.
Mr. Hettiarachchi said PAFFREL had received 107 complaints of election-related violations of which 90 cases including 22 incidents of assault and 10 incidents of property damage had been confirmed. The highest number of election violence was reported from the Central province.
CaFFE said it had received 147 complaints of election-related violence and most of them were from Kurunegala, Polonnaruwa, Matale and Eravur.
Elections Chief Dayananda Dissanayake ordered the police to remove all illegal propaganda material by March 15.
But Police Chief Mahinda Balasuriya said the complete removal of propaganda material could not be guaranteed but the police was doing its best to have as many of them removed.