Hot lines set up to lodge complaints of election related incidents

Election Secretariat has set up special telephone numbers for public to lodge complaints of election law violations and election related incidents the Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya announced.

Addressing a media briefing at the Elections Secretariat at Rajagiriya in Colombo Thursday, the Election commissioner said preference numbers have been issued for candidates of all districts other than the Batticaloa district. 

Preference numbers for the candidates of the Batticaloa district will be issued shortly.

According to the Election commissioner foreign observers will monitor the parliamentary election. A delegation comprising 70 members of the European commission is expected to arrive on Monday. Another 30 election observers from the SAARC organization and 10 observers from the Commonwealth are also expected to arrive.

Speaking about the security for the candidates, the Commissioner emphasized that it is his duty and responsibility to provide equal treatment to all candidates. According to the Constitution, he is unable to provide security during the election period to the party officials who are not candidates, he said. However, consideration can be given if any candidate requires security due to some special reasons. He stressed that it is unreasonable to accuse him or the Inspector General of Police for removing security for any candidate.

The Commissioner also noted that Elections Secretariat has opened three telephone numbers to accept complaints of election related incidents.

Accordingly, the public could submit complaints through the telephone numbers 0112-887756, 0112-887759 and 0112-877631. The public can also submit complaints via fax at 0112-887717 and 0112-877636.