UNP doubts polls would be free and fair

The United National Party (UNP) says a large number of election law violations have been reported during the local government election campaign and that the election would not be free and fair.

UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake has said that many public sector employees have been used in the election campaign violating election laws.

He has observed that the inability to take action against the officials who violate the Establishment Code by getting public employees to engage in political work would pose a problem to the country’s public service.

He has said that most employees at government ministries were engaged in campaign work for the local government election on Saturday (8).

According to Attanayake, there were doubts on whether the local government election would be free and fair given the high level of election law violations.

The Police have arrested 127 people on 97 complaints of election law violations they received so far and 60 of them were regarding illegal propaganda activity.