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| Sunday, 18 December 2005 |
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EC puts the record straight Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake at the function of releasing the Transparency International Report on the Abuse of Public Resources, emphasised the need to reform present election laws. He reiterated that the election law dealt only with several simple issues like controlling a polling centre, transferring ballot boxes and counting ballot paper etc. Questioned by the media about the zero voting in North, he said no necessity came up for annulling the polls there as no evidence was provided to prove that the LTTE had instigated the voters to refrain from voting. Dissanayake continued that even the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna had campaigned for boycotts of elections in the past and they were free to do so. He further added that it was made a big clamour just after the elections that over 60,000 names had been deleted from the electoral registers. "Later the amount has reduced to 40,000 and last week to 25,000. I think it would come down further", the Elections Commissioner said. Program for Protection of Public Resources (PPPR) Director J. C. Weliamuna said that a 15 minute talk with the Elections Commissioner before finalisation of the 17th amendment to the 1978 Constitution could have solved the problem. The report on abuse of public resources during the presidential election done by the Transparency International Sri Lanka revealed both candidates had used public resources for their election campaigns. Justice P. Edissuriya who present at the function on behalf of the Commission for Investigating Allegations on Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) said that the commission did not have authority to initiate investigations on its own on any issue, everything should come to them as a complaint. PPPR also recommends an appointment of a Commission of Inquiry to identify the patterns of misuse of State resources and to assess the extent and quantity of the losses. (DW) |
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