Bogus complaints have projected a wrong picture of Uva polls

Bogus complaints received in large numbers by various independent election monitoring bodies seemed to have projected a wrong picture about the Uva elections, whereas the police had received only 61 complaints by yesterday, police sources said. Various independent bodies monitoring the pending Provincial Council elections in Uva next Saturday have recorded several hundred election-related complaints so far and the actual figure reported to the police in all three districts is only 61.

Senior police officials said that this was manly due to the lodging of bogus complaints with the so-called election monitoring bodies, which would not go the extra mile of getting such complaints confirmed whether they are true or false.

But when it comes to the police it is a different story as the perpetrators or interested parties are hesitant to lodge bogus complaints as the former will make a thorough study about the complaint before it is added to the statistics.

Lodging bogus complaints at election time is generally done by all parties against their opponents and these have to be monitored carefully. The police is armed with legal provision to act against such instances and due to this fear nobody would lodge bogus complaints.

If somebody argues that the police is not impartial the complainants could even go to a higher official such as a DIG to lodge a complaint.

Senior police officers said that by looking at a figure publicised by an independent monitoring body will only distort the reality.

DIG Roshan Fernando, in charge of Uva Province last week told a meeting with the Elections Commissioner and other top state officials that tough legal action would be taken against those who lodge bogus complaints.

According to statistics there had been 13 complaints from the PA, 13 complaints from the UNP and 26 complaints from the JVP, four complaints from the Democratic Party and five from other parties.

KK