The Election Secretariat (EC) has received over 3,300 election related complaints up to yesterday. However, the cases of violence have been comparatively low, a release issued by the National Election Commission (NEC) stated.
The NEC has received 3,319 complaints of which 25 were poll related violence and 3,189 over incidents of violation of election law. The Commission has been receiving complaints since October 7.
The Election Secretariat has received 105 complaints for the 24 hours which ended at 4.00 pm yesterday. However, none of them were related to violence.
Meanwhile, the independent election observer PAFFREL has recorded 10 grievous assaults, 13 other assaults and six cases of intimidation and threats since September 27. It has also recorded 21 cases of hospitalizations.
PAFFREL has also monitored 178 cases of misuse of power, state resources and state sector employees. A release issued by PAFFREL stated that they have observed 167 incidents of illegal election propaganda and 38 cases of distributing incentives to promote candidates.
The Transparency International which was also observing the trend of state resources being exploited for election purposes announced 15 instances of state vehicles and 23 cases of state buildings being misused, eight instances where state sponsored development projects being misused, 14 cases of giving incentives, 10 occasions where new appointments, promotions and transfers targeting the election were made.
According to TISL the highest number of cases relating to misuse of state resources were from Colombo, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee and Kandy districts.
According to election monitoring bodies the pre-election period has been less violent compared to previous elections.
In addition to local poll observers deployed by eight monitoring organisations, three international bodies - the European Union, Forum of Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) and Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) will observe the election.
The EU commenced its mission on October 22. Its team comprising 30 long term observers and al 75 strong contingent will cover the pre-election phase, voting, counting and tabulation and transmission of results, as well as the post election phase till December.-MF