DailyMirror
Claims no control over police and state media
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayaka has told the opposition that he could not hold a free and fair election under the existing system as he had no control over the police and the state media, the two most important institutions whose independence is vital for free and fair election, UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayaka said.
In a last minute bid to contain a sudden increase of election related violence at the tail end of the election campaign, the main opposition UNP and the JVP led DNA and the SLMC met Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayaka last morning at the Elections Secretariat at Rajagiriya.
Mr. Attanayaka told the Daily Mirror that the Polls Chief accepted that the IGP had failed to carry out some of his instructions on certain occasions.
“He simply accepted his failure to conduct a free and fair election under the existing system as all stake holders to the election who should obey his orders and guidelines issued during the election campaign had not done so,” Mr. Attanayaka said.
They also expressed their displeasure over the failure of the Elections Secretariat to take tangible measures to control elections violence and the open violation of election laws by party candidates.
All election monitoring bodies charged there was a steady escalation of election related violence and the violation of the election law in the last two days prior to the conclusion of election propaganda on Monday midnight.
PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiaarachchi expressed deep regret over the killing of a youth, a supporter of the UPFA allegedly during an intra party clash at Ridigama, Mawathagama constituency on Sunday night
Mr. Hettiaarachchi said it was distressing that a 22 year old youth had to sacrifice his life unnecessarily.
He said PAFFREL had received 271 elections related incidents by last afternoon.
The CMEV had received 363 cases of elections related violence by yesterday and that included the murder at Kurunegala district.
The CMEV statement highlighted that there was an unprecedented number of incidents that involved candidates and supporters of the same political party.
Meanwhile, CaFFE blamed elections Commissioner for not permitting to deploy sufficient number of elections observers at counting centers.
‘The permission given to place only two observers at counting centers is hardly sufficient to carry out satisfactory observation especially under the backdrop of allegations of election malpractice from the opposition at the counting centers during the Presidential election,” CaFFE spokesman Keerti Tennakone said.
He said the permission to deploy only two observers was meant only to hoodwink the public. He expressed his strong protest to the Elections Commissioner’s move.
Former MPs Anura Kumara Dissnayaka and Vijitha Herath of the DNA and SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem also took part in the discussion.