Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said the failure by a police team led by an OIC or a HQI was the inability of the policeman himself, therefore necessary action would be taken against them.

The Police Elections Desk headed by senior DIG Gamini Navaratne, has received a total of 12 complaints where election laws had been violated. The elections are to be held on September 8.

Most of the complaints they received were regarding incidents where candidates were threatened and their election offices attacked. However no suspects have been arrested but police are investigating along with the area police stations.

Police have advised all the relevant parties to prevent incidents of violence and advise their supporters not to engage in violating the prevailing election laws.

They have deployed mobile road blocks, additional police patrols and extra manpower to areas that have been identified as hot spots where government and the opposition have strong presence. Rs.5 million has been allocated by the Elections Department to the police to remove election propaganda material such as banners, posters and cutouts.

Meanwhile Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CaFFE) charged that the police had failed to adhere to a directive issued by the Elections Department.

They stated that the Elections Department had directed the Eravur police in the East to hand over the keys of the Eravur post office that was being occupied by a governing party candidate contesting the forthcoming Eastern Provincial Council election.

CaFFE has informed the Elections Commissioner that the police had not adhered to the directive by the Assistant Elections Commissioner for the Batticaloa district who had asked the keys to be handed over to the Postal Department on July 28.

CaFFE stated that the police refused to hand over the keys saying they would do so after the Provincial Council elections were concluded.

Source: Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka