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| Sunday, 29 February 2004 |
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Green Movement urges eco-friendly elections by ANTON NONIS The Green Movement of Sri Lanka (GMSL) is waging war on environment-unfriendly political campaigns, and has appealed to the Elections Commissioner to take action against those using polythene, plastic and posters in their bid to win votes. According to Suranjan Kodituwakku, Convenor of GMSL, the Commissioner of Elections is vested with the power of police under the Parliamentary Election Act No. 4 of 1981 and can take appropriate action, including removing environmentally-offensive decorations. "What we see during an election is gross violation of rules. Every nook and corner is covered with posters; every junction is crowded with polythene decorations and flags," he said. The GMSL, while requesting all political candidates to avoid using environmentally hazardous polythene in their campaigns, has warned that it will take legal action under the Public Nuisance Act, if no positive reply is received from relevant political parties within two weeks. A petition has already been sent to the Elections Commissioner and the movement hopes to discuss the issue with the General Secretaries of each party. According to the police, a number of people involved in putting up posters had been taken into custody and had later been released on bail. Police sources admitted that they had to confront political intervention when taking such actions. During elections, an estimated 150,000 kilos of polythene, the bane of the environment contributing to bio-diversity degradation, are discharged to the environs. An estimated one million kilos of paper is said to be used by candidates during election times, which is equivalent to around two hectares of trees. |
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