We managed to halt many abuses of state resources so far – EC

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana

Claiming that over 390 complaints received up to now are instances of violation of the election law, the Election Commission Chief said yesterday that they have managed to stop many abuses of state resources including Urumaya and Suraksha, which were on the top of the list.   Chairman Election Commission of Sri Lanka R A M L Ratnayake told the Daily Mirror that majority of complaints they have received thus far is against instances of state resource abuse, most of them which they have managed to stop with immediate effect.  
The Ninth Presidential Election was declared by the independent commission on Friday, July 26th and according to statistics collected from Wednesday, July 31st to Tuesday, August 13th, the commission has received 408 complaints.   
Out of the 408 complaints 392 had been categorized under the instances of violation of Election Law and 15 under others.   
“We have managed to halt many instances or government sponsored programmes, which will fall into the abuse of state resources, including increase of pension money, Urumaya to distribute land ownership and education programme Suraksha.   
Sometimes, we have received dozens of complaints against one project or incident and all these complaints gathered to date were from the 25 districts including Colombo,” the Chairman said.   
He further said that all these state sponsored programmes including distribution of goods had been halted temporarily until after September this year once the election is concluded.    Organising and holding large functions followed by lunches and dinners at the Temple Trees and distributing metal roofing sheets and chairs at a function in the South were among the other crucial instances the commission had managed to cease, Ratnayake said.