Escalation of attacks on party offices

The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) yesterday expressed concerns about the escalation in attacks on party offices recently.
“A spate of attacks on election offices has started in the last four to five days. The increased misuse of state property for election purposes is also an alarming trend,” PAFFREL Chairman Kingsley Rodrigo said.
According to PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi, the election monitoring body has received 13 complaints as at March 24, out of which six are pertaining to attacks on election offices.
There were five instances of attacks on persons and two incidents related to using unlawful means of conducting election propaganda.
“Although we have received only two written complaints about illegal forms of carrying out election propaganda work this is the most common violation, visible in all parts of the province,” Hettiarachchi said.
Campaign for Free & Fair Election (CaFFE) Media Spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon also expressed concerns about the “chain reaction of violence” that kicks off due to attacks on party offices and the ensuing retaliations.
He also noted that the police was acting in a partisan manner allowing a “few privileged” UPFA candidates to use public address systems for election propaganda work despite the ban on using such devices.

CaFFE has received 21 complaints of election related violence as at March 24, out of which 20 were made against the UPFA and one against the UNP.