Election monitors and veterans in the subject point out that candidates and supporters always violate the act because legal provisions lack the gumption that is required to effect the laws.
As election fever hots up, violation of elections laws can be seen islandwide. Despite the regulations enacted by the elections commissioner for a free and fair election from time to time, candidates and supporters continue their work, violating all these regulations.  

Millions of rupees are spent on posters, banners and cutouts but there is no regulation as to how much a candidate should spend. In addition, there is no accurate statistics on the advertising budgets of candidates. Though we querried from some candidates about their advertising budgets, they said they were not the people who doing the spending as they were not that financially affluent but their friends and supporters are pasting posters and erecting cutouts in a bid to ‘support’ them.

The Act

The Parliament Elections Act no 01 of 1981 clearly explains how candidates must work during an election and the punishments that should be meted out for violating the elections act. Ranjith Keerthi Tennakoon, spokesperson for CAFFE, an election monitoring organization, points out that candidates violate the act without any fear about being punished.

“There are no political ethics in Sri Lanka. Candidates violate everything mentioned in the elections act,” said Dr. Prathibha Mahanamahewa, senior lecturer of the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo. According to him, the act contains three main sections that explain election offences, corruptions and illegal acts. According to sentence No 66 of the act, “preparing official ballot papers without any authority”, “buying or selling of ballot papers”, “contesting for an election or holding of rallies by a person without civic rights”, “asking for votes by a person who is not a candidate”, are considered as offences. In addition to that, one party can open only one election propaganda office in a single district.

“The Commissioner of Elections has stated that posters, cutouts can not be displayed during the election period. The elections commissioner is playing on a ‘cheating game’ during the whole election period of two and a half months. Illegal cutouts are displayed right in front of 11 district election offices and you can see them just as you come out of the gates. But no one is doing anything to remove them. It is the same about election offices. No one can ask for votes for a candidate but today the wife goes from place to place asking voters to vote for the husband” said Thennakoon.

“According to the elections act, rallies and meetings are not allowed once an election has been declared. But just see how many rallies and meetings are being held. No one bothers about the elections act” said Dr. Mahanamahewa.

According to the elections act, it is illegal to display symbols of political parties on vehicles and it is possible only for those vehicles used by candidates. But symbols of political parties are displayed everywhere including on vehicles.

“Bribery is openly taking place. When elections come, they give jobs. When one candidate promises to increase salaries by Rs 5,000, another promises to increase salaries by Rs 7,500. Candidates bring over voters to their places, treat them with food and drink and ask them to vote for these candidates. This is all corruption,” said Tennakoon.

During an election in Sri Lanka, candidates spend many millions of rupees and as Dr. Mahanamahewa points out, Sri Lanka does not have any laws to control this, though other countries do. The best example of this is that India has acts regulating the manner candidates must spend money for propaganda campaigns.

“According to India’s penal code, each candidate must maintain accounts about their expenditure during an election. The candidates are bound to hand over these whenever they are asked to do that by the Inland Revenue Department. So one can learn how much money a candidate has spent for his campaign. The accounts maintained by media institutions must be handed over when the elections officers ask for them.” said Dr. Mahanamahewa while explaining the situation in Sri Lanka.

According to Dr. Mahanamahewa, India’s election commission has presented a code of ethics for candidates, which has to be absorbed in to the constitution of every political party. In Australia and New Zealand all candidates must give an affidavit saying that they wouldn’t violate election laws and in case they do violate them, their candidature will be cancelled. As Dr. Mahanamahewa points out Sri Lanka’s problem is the absence of such laws.

Weakness

Tennakoon pointed out the appointment of an elections commission under the 17th amendment as another weakness, questioning how a free and fair election can be held when the constitution is openly violated. The penalties coming in the elections act are not suitable for the present, explained Tennakoon, pointing out that the fine for some offences under the act is as low as Rs 500.

“The elections act of Sri Lanka is nothing more than a joke. Those who commit offences have to be arrested by the police and if the police don’t do that despite the election commissioner’s orders, the elections commissioner cannot go and arrest the offenders himself” Said Dr. Mahanamahewa. According to him, the penalties for offences are very light. To file a case at the court against those involved in election corruptions, approval of the attorney general has to be taken first and the penalty will not be more than a fine of Rs 500 and 12 months imprisonment which is not sufficient at all. The penalty for those engaged in illegal acts related to election violations is a Rs 300 fine and the cancellation of MP post.

As Tennakoon points out the election laws have to change according to the times.
“If these laws are to be changed, they have to be done by parliament. About 215 of the 225 former parliamentarians are contesting this time as well but they don’t change the laws so as to hold a free and fair election.”