By Rathindra Kuruwita
Election monitors yesterday threatened to take state officials, who are mandated to act according to election laws, to court if they continued to ignore blatant election-related violations.
Executive Director of the People’s Action for Free & Fair Elections (PAFFREL) Rohana Hettiarachchi said that politicians would not be able to violate election laws without the support of state officials.
“We have to put an end to this. We have to move courts.
The Governors of the Uva, Northern, Wayamba, Sabaragamuwa and North Central Provinces have been appointing the LG polls candidates to various posts. We have been speaking to our lawyers,” he said.
“If the leader of the country does not respect election laws, we will have to move the Supreme Court,” he said.
Hettiarachchi said that he believed that about 20 candidates would contest the upcoming presidential election.
The government has been misusing State funds for election purposes, Executive Director, Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies (IRES) Manjula Gajanayake said.
sRI lANKASri Lanka