None of the four leading presidential candidates—current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa, and Namal Rajapaksa—had made their campaign expenditure declarations as of Friday, in keeping with the campaign finance laws.
The parties and candidates were due to submit election expenditure details relating to last month’s presidential election today. However, as of Friday, the Election Commission noted that only 13 of the 38 candidates had filed their accounts under the Election Expenditure Act No. 3 of 2023. The EC on Friday listed out the names of these candidates.
The Election Expenditure Act holds that all parties and independent candidates must submit records of the donors to their campaign within 21 days of the election results being announced. In conjunction with this Act, which was implemented for the first time since its enactment, a gazette detailing the stipulations around these submissions was published in August.
Accordingly, each candidate was permitted to spend up to Rs. 109 per voter for campaign activities, amounting to a total of 1,868.3 million rupees ($6 million). This marked another first for Sri Lanka’s election law, as a verifiable expenditure limit has not been in place before.
The EC said the report should include an estimated cost of all donations and contributions accepted or received in cash or kind by such recognised or other political party or candidate, stating whether they are donations, loans, advances, or deposits, as well as the “name, address, national identity card number, tax number (TIN), or the registration number of the donor, contributor, or the institution, incorporated or non-incorporated.”
Expenditure on media promotions, from printed handbills and banners to advertisements and broadcast programs, must be included in the submission.
The expenses for all media activities—handbills, posters, banners, pictures, advertisements, propaganda notices, radio and television shows, news bulletins, magazines, periodicals, social media, digital exposes, and any other digital media or publications—as well as the fuel supply for vehicles, regardless of whether payments were made or not, should be included in this report.
The Election Expenditure Act also requires all political parties that participate in the presidential election to include the tax payment information of individuals and companies that are funding presidential candidates.
Submitted records will be available for public viewing within two weeks of the deadline today. The EC had also noted, before the election, that those who failed to meet the deadline provided with accurate and honest information would be subject to the penalties prescribed in the Election Expenditure Act.
By Thrushi Weerasinghe /Sunday Times