In Sri Lanka, a Tamil MP has requested the Election Commission and the Inspector General of police to investigate into a news report published by three newspapers and also sent a defamation notice to the newspapers.
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) spokesperson MA Sumanthiran was quoted saying that Tamil people should vote for Sajith Premadasa in order to defeat the Sinhalese people in the South.
MP Sumanthiran said that the reports are blatant falsehood and requested through legal counsel to open a criminal investigation of an offence under International Covenant on Civil and Political rights (ICCPR).
He said these false reports are a propagation of racial hatred, which amounts to an offence under the ICCPR Act. Meanwhile, election commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya has criticized the media behavior during the campaign for Presidential elections saying it is worst in history of the country.
He said the commission would seriously consider taking legal action against a number of media institutions for deliberately violating the election law and media guidelines issued by the commission.
Presidential elections are scheduled for Saturday where former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajpaksa and minister Sajith Premadasa are frontrunners among 35 candidates