Police to allow usage of images of only members of the party during campaign work

• Using MR picture in Pohottuwa campaigns will be disallowed

By Chathuri Dissanayake

Using images of politicians outside of their own party during campaigning, political meetings and in party offices will not be permitted in the lead up to the local government elections.

Following a discussion between Party Leaders and the Election Commission on Monday, it was determined that using photographs of politicians who do not belong to the party will not be allowed during campaigning, Additional Elections Commissioner of the National Elections Commission, Saman S. Ratnayake confirmed.

Candidates are allowed to use the images of the leader of their party but will not be able to use photographs of anyone who is not a member of the party or a member of another party.

According to Sunil Watagala who attended the meeting representing the JVP, the Police raised the question on the matter as there have been incidents where images of national level leaders who are members of one party have been used to promote candidates of a different party.

“The police was advised that candidates can only use their party leader’s pictures and that action can be taken if photographs of politicians of other parties are used,” Watawala told DailyFT.

The discussion, taking the case of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna as an example pointed out that while the candidates are able to display the Picture of Party Chairman G. L. Peiris, they will not be able to display images of Former President Mahinda Rajapaksha, who is widely considered to be the leader of the party though he still holds membership in Sri Lanka Freedom Party.