29 election-related complaints on vote day

• 4 people arrested, 9 vehicles taken into custody
• Election Commission receives 288 complaints, including two assaults
• Largest number of complaints on displaying candidate numbers and parties

By Asiri Fernando

The Police department yesterday said that the General Election was held in a largely peaceful environment with only 29 election-related complaints recorded by law enforcement agencies during the span of the voting day.

Police Spokesman SSP Jaliya Senaratne – Pic by Sameera Wijesinghe

"A free and fair election was our goal. We believe that our goal was reached as only a few violations of election regulations were reported," Police Spokesman SSP Jaliya Senaratne told reporters. He stated that only six incidents of election-related criminal activities were reported yesterday.

Two persons were arrested at voting centres for photographing their marked ballot paper Nawalapitiya and Piliyandala.

 Both suspects were produced before the Magistrate Court, where one was granted bail and the other was remanded. 

The Police Department had been issuing warnings that photographing and sharing images of a voter's ballot paper is a violation of election law and that those who do so will have charges filed against them in high court with the possibility of being sentence to jail if found guilty. 

Police in Kuchchaveli, Bogahakumbura, Nittambuwa and Welamboda have arrested political activists for displaying banners and boards with images of candidates, political party emblems and preferential numbers within the 500-metre zone around polling centres. 

During the time period of the election held yesterday (7 a.m. to 5 p.m.), 29 complaints regarding violation of election regulations were lodged with the Police, resulting in the arrest of 34 individuals, of whom most were political supporters. Nine vehicles were also taken in to custody for violating election regulations. 

According to SSP Senaratne, a total of 104 complaints, which fall under the criminal category had been received by the Police from the day the election was gazetted to the day of the vote and were currently under investigation. The Police have also received 314 complaints regarding the violation of election regulations. Five hundred and twelve persons, including seven candidates, have been charged with election-related offences. Further, 153 vehicles, including three State-owned vehicles, have been taken into custody. 

The National Election Complaints Management Centre (NECMC) of the Election Commission reported that they had received 288 complaints yesterday. The NECMC has received three complaints of alleged assaults, one of which had later been discredited as non-election-related. The highest number of complaints received by the NECMC (94) were regarding displays of banners, posters and boards with candidate details. The centre also reported receiving 93 complaints regarding soliciting of votes or obstructing of voting. 

"Overall, we can see that the election was held peacefully with no violence. We can see that there were no reports of persons obstructing voters from reaching voting centres or preventing them from voting. At present, the ballot boxes are being transported under armed police guard to their respective counting centres. The route the ballot boxes will be moved is also patrolled by mobile police units," SSP Senaratne said. 

The Police, Special Task Force and Civil Security Department personnel, along with members from the Election Commission provided protection to the counting centres. The counting of ballots began earlier this morning.