Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

Poll monitors receive complaints: Several ministries are accused of violating election laws

- By Shaadya Ismail

Complaints have started reaching election monitoring bodies, as election laws are already in operation from September 18, the day on which the National Election Commission published the Gazette announcing the election date. Most complaints relate to job appointmen­ts given by the government and government programmes seen as propaganda.

Monitoring officials said such activities also went against the guidelines issued by the National Election Commission (NEC).

The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said it had received nine complaints since NEC announced on September 18 that the presidenti­al election would be held on November 16 and nomination would be accepted on October 7.

The People’s Action For Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) said it had received 14 complaints, of which 10, they believed, were related to job appointmen­ts.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, CMEV Coordinato­r Manjula Gajanayake accused eight government institutio­ns and ministries of carrying out activities in violation of election laws. They included the Ministry of Education, the Department of Irrigation, the Prime Minister's Office and the Tourism Board. He said the Film Corporatio­n had conducted interviews for jobs, but appointmen­ts had not been given yet.

The official said the Housing Developmen­t Ministry had distribute­d cement bags and other building material in the Hambantota district. In another instance, the NEC was able to stop the distributi­on of state land by the Land Ministry.

However, Mr. Gajanayake said that some complaints were related to ongoing programmes and, therefore, did not construe a violation of election laws.

“For instance, at Rikilla Gaskada in Nuwara Eliya, some 100 residents were given land deeds by Minister Navin Dissanayak­e. This was part of an ongoing programme to distribute 5,000 deeds and therefore not an election laws violation,” he said.

However, Mr. Gajanayake said these issues could be avoided if Sri Lanka had a fixed election calendar, like in some other countries.

Lamenting that election officials had not been rigid in applying the law, he said the NEC should write to the ministers concerned officially, asking them to desist from undertakin­g programmes deemed a violation of election laws and if they went ahead, the NEC should resort to legal action to stop such activities.

PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarach­chi said that to circumvent the election laws, some state institutio­ns were issuing backdated appointmen­t letters or carrying out recruitmen­t claiming that they were only recruiting trainees.

“By informing the NEC, PAFFREL was able to stop some illegal appointmen­ts before they were given, but with regard to the appointmen­ts that had already been given, we could only report them to the NEC,” he said.

Mr. Hettiarach­chi said his group was able to stop the distributi­on of farming equipment in the Moneragala area after they brought it to the attention of the NEC.

National Freedom Front (NFF) National Organiser Jayantha Samaraweer­a told a recent news conference that 1,958 principal appointmen­ts and 700 other appointmen­ts had been made after September 18.

He claimed hundreds, if not thousands, of people had been recruited to several state institutio­ns such as the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, the Urban Developmen­t Authority, the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, the Health Ministry and the Housing Ministry, after the election date was announced.

He alleged that the Housing Ministry had distribute­d 12,000 bags of cement among 800 families in Tissamahar­ama in recent weeks.

When the Sunday Times contacted some of the ministries accused of violating the election laws, they rebuffed the allegation­s.

An Education Ministry official said that about one thousand principal appointmen­ts were to be given based on the vacancy assessment conducted out on June 1 this year, long before the election date was announced. He insisted that no appointmen­t letters had been given yet, but the vacancies were announced on the Ministry’s website.

Public Administra­tion Ministry Secretary J. J. Rathnasiri said those who made the allegation­s should first find out whether the relevant ministries had received the NEC’s permission.

“We will not go beyond the election laws. We have issued a notice to halt all appointmen­ts and promotions, but if officials violate the election law, they must be reported to the NEC,” he said.

The Megapolis and Western Developmen­t Ministry said it had stopped giving appointmen­ts after it received letters from the NEC, asking the ministry to respect the election laws and stop all appointmen­ts, promotions and political activities.

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