In the absence of laws in place to check election campaign financing, three of the main candidates contesting Saturday’s Presidential Election have spent a staggering sum of over Rs. 3000 million within a month on their promotional activities, the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said this week.

The highest amount of around Rs. 1,500 million was spent by SLPP’s candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, while the NDF’s candidate Sajith Premadasa came a close second, having spent close to Rs 1400 million.

The other candidate who has spent heavily on his campaign was NPP’s candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake, with around Rs. 160 million.

The CMEV released a report of estimated expenses by the candidates. It focuses on four key areas, namely print media, electronic media, social media, and other costs (ground level campaigning - public rallies, meetings, visibility items, and also costs affiliated with the misuses of state property etc.)

CMEV said that these are estimates as procuring official data and information on campaign-related activities is difficult in Sri Lanka, and as such much of the estimates have been garnered through in-depth research and analysis into each of the candidate’s public campaigning efforts.

In total, CMEV has 17 staff members stationed in the campaign finance and monitoring unit, which includes two data analysts and two data-entry personnel. 

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