PAFFREL records nearly 1,000 complaints, 16 acts of violence

By Leenah Wahab

People’s Action for Free And Fair Elections (PAFFREL) has received 972 complaints of election law violations islandwide in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in November, according to a recent report.

From October 11, 2024 to October 30, 2024, PAFFREL reported 946 confirmed and 23 unconfirmed complaints ranging from violation of election laws, abuse of state power, resources and employees and acts of violence. The majority of complaints, 805 of the 972 were attributed to the distribution of illegal propaganda by political parties which was also the case in the pre-election period of the Presidential Election, with 631 regarding illicit propaganda.

Further, there were reportedly 16 acts of violence; 14 confirmed and two unconfirmed. Critical incidents included the assault of a journalist by an organiser of the young wing of the National People’s Power (NPP) over a newspaper article, a stone allegedly thrown at the vehicle of a candidate from Eros Democratic Front, shattering the front windshield, and an incident in which two supporters of the Tamil Progressive Alliance threatened to kill candidates of the NPP if they came to their estates to ask for votes. PAFFREL also recorded 14 separate cases of violence and incitement on social media and a further eight cases of hate speech, bullying and harassment, predominantly on Facebook.

Moreover, 64 complaints were on maintaining illegal party offices, 51 on giving incentives with political objectives, seven on carrying out election campaign activities harassing and inconveniencing the public, six on state officers acting in favour of political parties and in breach of official duties, three on carrying out unlawful meetings and processions and two on giving incentives to voters.

While the pre-election period ahead of the Presidential Election saw a staggering 196 incidents of misuse of state resources, only 10 complaints have been conveyed before the upcoming parliamentary elections.

PAFFREL launches its election observation mission throughout the country, planning to deploy 160 Long Term Observers (LTOs), 3,000 Stationary Observers (STOs), 1,320 Mobile Team Observers (MTOs) through 330 Mobile Teams, 24 Special Mobile Observers through six Special Mobile Units, 1,000 Postal Voting Observers (PVOs), 200 Counting/Tabulation Centre Observers, 32 Campaign Finance Monitoring Observers, and 25 Election Dispute Centre (EDR) Observers. Additionally, PAFFREL plans to mobilise 30 District Coordinators, 30 District Finance Officers, and 26 Field Coordinators.

Due to the presence of over 8,000 candidates running in the election, PAFFREL will be deploying more election observers than there were during the Presidential Election, involving 3,000 stationary observers, 1,000 postal voting observers, 1,320 mobile team observers as well as district-level officials. PAFFREL will also be monitoring the campaign finance activities of the selected political parties, namely, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), NPP, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), New Democratic Front (NDF), Sarvajana Balaya, and United Democratic Voice as they obtained a high number of votes at the previous elections, and recorded high levels expenditure incurred by political parties captured under the Chanda Salli Meetare, a campaign finance monitoring website by PAFFREL.