AKD refuses allegations on election campaign cost; says never spent lavishly

Responding to allegations that the National People's Power (NPP) was spending colossal amounts of money for the election campaign, NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said today they never spent lavishly on the election campaign like other parties.

He told reporters that they were not spending any money exceeding the limit specified by the newly passed Act on election expenditure.

“The figures shown by political opponents are wrong. Politicians who loot public money and spend millions on stages and billboards think that we are also doing the same. We never spend lavishly on election campaigns. We are very strict on allocating funds and we never misuse funds we receive,” he said.

He told reporters after a discussion with elections commission that they had a discussion with the Elections Commission on several matters such as announcing an early date for the Local Government election and the issues faced by state employees who are contesting the election and on no-pay leave.

He said the elections commission agreed to announce an early date for the LG polls at the meeting to be held on March 3 to decide a new date.

"According to the Local Authorities Elections Ordinance, a new date should be fixed after 21 days of the postponement of the election. We requested the Elections Commission to set an early date as 33 days from the allocated 44-day election campaign has been completed by now. Political parties have spent huge amounts of money on the election campaign," he said.

Dissanayake said they brought to the notice of the Elections Commission the issue faced by state employees who are contesting the LG polls.

"The state employees who are contesting the election are on no-pay leave from January 21 to March 9 and as the election is set to be postponed, they will not get their salaries for an extended period. We requested they to permit them to report for duty during the period of postponement. The elections commission agreed to look into the matter," he said. (Ajith Siriwardana)