Opposition complains against government projects

Colombo, July 2 (Daily Mirror) - A group of Opposition MPs requested the Election Commission to prevent the government from using certain projects to gain advantages for future elections.

A written request signed by MPs Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Mano Ganesan, Rauff Hakeem, V. Radhakrishnan, Tissa Attanayake, Gayantha Karunatilaka, Mujibur Rahman, Lakshman Kiriella, Rohini Wijeratne, G.L. Peiris, Rohana Bandara, Nalin Bandara, Buddhika Pathirana, Hector Appuharmy, Nalaka Godahewa, Dullas Alahaperuma, Weerasumana Weerasinghe and Dayasiri Jayasekera was handed over to the chairman of the Election Commission today.

“We know that the Local Government elections have been disrupted by the government by not providing the necessary funds. However, a period during which an election has been declared as per the election law is a duration in which the election law is in force. The Election Commission will get the official power to declare the Presidential Election Constitutionally in less than a month. An election must be held between that date and 17th October 2024. However, knowing this situation, the government is using public funds targeting the elections to promote parties and candidates under the guise of regional development,” the MPs said in the letter.

“Provisions in decentralized budgets for Members of Parliament have been issued only to selected members, depriving some members of their right to equal opportunity. Action was taken to transfer an amount of Rs. 8,750 million from other heads of expenditure to the head of expenditure of the President last week, purportedly to be used for regional development activities. In addition to this, the government has implemented many display projects such as "Urumaya", providing rice to low-income earners, "Decade of Upcountry", providing fertilizers free of charge and "Jayagamu Sri Lanka". Although these programmes are carried out under the guise of people's welfare events, most of them factually operate as political programmes initiated by regional politicians. Also, all state media outlets are controlled by political cronies. Accordingly, every media space has become a trumpet of the government,” the letter added.

“We kindly request your urgent attention to take the following measures to prevent the use of public tax money to promote one party or candidate and to ensure a free and fair election. We request you  to issue necessary prior instructions and orders to prevent the use of public property and public officials to promote candidates or parties contesting elections, to inform the public that the expenses incurred for the projects carried out under the guise of regional development are carried out with public tax money, so that they should not favor a particular political group or candidate and to provide necessary instructions to be transparent and not to perform the activities in a showy manner promoting the image of individuals in utilising public resources for government jobs and other recruitments,” the MPs also said.