EC toughens up on candidates’ expenditure; calls for source of funds

- EC to hold crucial meeting today with all candidates to decide on spending amount

- EC says cost of Rs.10 bn will not be exceeded

- Over 15,000 local observers already deployed in all districts

- EC invites international observers to arrive in SL

- Observers already see spread of misinformation and hate speech targeting candidates on social media

By HUZEFA ALIASGER

The Election Commission has called for all the presidential candidates to provide the source of funds of how they will be funding their election campaigns and will also set a expenditure limit which each candidate can spend at the September 21 presidential poll, the Daily Mirror learns.

Subsequently, the Election Commission will be holding a crucial meeting with all candidates at 10 a.m. today morning to finalize the budget that each candidate can spend for their campaigning.

Commissioner General of Elections, Saman Sri Ratnayake told the Daily Mirror that the final budget for campaigning will be discussed with all candidates and once this amount is set, they will have to adhere to it.

He explained that once the Presidential Election concludes and the winner is declared, all candidates will be given a period of 21 days to declare the amounts they spent on campaigning and their source of funds.

Once this is done, the Election Commission will take a further 10 days to review the reports by candidates and will then publish it online.

If there is any discrepancy or if any candidate has exceeded the amount which was decided by the Election Commission, the public can take legal action in court against that particular candidate.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission said that an invitation has been sent to the EU, Commonwealth, ANFREL and independent election monitors from South Asia to arrive in Sri Lanka and monitor the September 21 Presidential Election. In addition to the international observers, around 15,000 local election monitors are already on ground in each district monitoring election related events and violations.

As every election, PAFFREL and CMEV will also be deploying local election observers on ground with Executive Director of PAFFREL, Rohana Hettiarachchi telling Daily Mirror that they will deploy at least 6000 observers on ground for the September 21st poll.

"This will be a unique election with the biggest IT involvement," CMEV National Coordinator Manjula Gajanayake said, adding that the CMEV is looking forward to partnering with foreign firms to monitor and handle an AI based monitoring process to identify misinformation and hate speech.

"We can see the involvement of paid campaigns to spread misinformation and hate speech on social media against certain candidates," former Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said.

In order to counter such misinformation and to ensure a free and fair election, the Daily Mirror learns that all major stakeholders including the Election Commission, the Bribery and Corruption Department, the Inland Revenue Department and the police force will all come together to maintain a fair and transparent Presidential Election on September 21.