DailyMirror
The police said yesterday it was logistically impossible to provide security to the 7,620 candidates contesting the April 8 general elections even if they requested for it.
Police spokesman Preshantha Jayakody said that once parliament was dissolved former parliamentarians reverted to being ordinary civilians and lost their entitlement to VIP security by the Ministerial Security Division (MSD). He said only misisters were entitled to such security.
More than 110 of the former UPFA MPs are Cabinet, non Cabinet or Deputy Ministers.
“However, if any politician – a former MP or a party leader — thinks he or she is under threat and that his or her life is in danger he or she can make a request to the Police Chief,” SP Jayakody said.
He said the request would be referred to the Police Intelligence Service (PIS) before deciding whether a politician needed security.
SP Jayakody said that even party leaders were not entitled to PSD security as claimed by the opposition. He said some 65,000 policemen would be deployed for election duty.
Meanwhile, Peoples Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) executive director Rohana Hettiaarachchi said the Asian Network for Free and Fair Elections (ANFFE) had confirmed it would send 14 election observers to monitor the April 8 elections.
He said so far four incidents of election-related violence were reported to it from Haputale, Gampola, Kandy and Walapane.
Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) spokesman Keerthi Tennakone said his organization would employ about 6,500 election monitors including mobile patrols.
He said CaFFE had received 11 complaints from Kotagala, Nuwara-Eliya, Galle, Badulla, Kalutara, Payagala, Gampaha, Psayala, Kelaniya, Gampaha and Kandy. An elections secretariat source said the allocation of numbers to candidates had begun and would be concluded by tomorrow.“The numbers are allocated on a district basis and complete list is sent to District Returning Officers (DROs) who will inform each candidate of his or her number,” the source said.