Police seek candidates’ assistance to arrest election violators

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 March 2010, 15:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police Election Desk has received 201 election related complaints including intimidations and violation of election laws till Saturday and 128 suspects have been taken into custody. Police are now seeking the assistance of candidates of political parties and independent groups contesting the general election to trace 185 more suspects involved in election violence, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Gamini Navaratne said.

Political parties and independent candidates have fielded more than 7600 candidates to be elected for the 225 member-parliament at the forthcoming general election set for April 8. Hence it is impossible to remove election propaganda materials erected and pasted in public places, he added.

The removal of election propaganda material that violates election law is steadily progressing and nearly half of the propaganda materials have been already been removed, he said.

The police commenced an island wide campaign to remove all political posters, banners and cut outs following a directive issued by the Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake who has allocated Rs. 22 million for this purpose on a request made by the police department.

The police have deployed mobile road blocks, additional police patrols and extra policemen to areas where the police have already identified as hot spots where government and the opposition have strong presence, the DIG said.