ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka police arrested 41 people, including two candidates, for violating election rules, mainly for illegal election promotions, police said.
“The two candidates were from Kalpitiya and Vavuniya areas,†Nihal Thalduwa, Police Media Spokesperson told reporters.
“Most arrests were for illegal election promotions, taking photographs, tearing up ballot papers, distributing money, and other disturbances to the peaceful voting process,†he said.
An election officer was taken off duty following an incident where a voter was not given the right assistance in the Kattankudy area.
Another incident was reported from Nallathanniya when two intoxicated persons were arrested for harassing a driver of an election official.
A 64 year old person was arrested for tearing a ballot paper in an election center in Wadduwa.
All ballot boxes are being transported to counting centers currently. Only persons with permission are allowed to follow the ballot boxes.
“We had started providing police protection to counting centers days ago. The Special Task Force is in charge of the protection of counting centers.
“We request the public to avoid going past the roadblocks that are in place, and to not go into election centers intoxicated.†Thalduwa said.
All mobile phones should be handed over to authorities before entering a counting center as no phones are allowed within the premises.
There are 54 counting centers islandwide being given protection taking adverse weather conditions in certain areas into consideration. Sri Lanka Police and the Tri-forces stand ready to provide support within this regard.
Thalduwa stated that the election by far has been peaceful and the arrests that were made were mainly owing to illegal promotions. No acts of violence have been reported, however, three deaths of officers, caused by natural causes, were reported, he further mentioned.
A police officer, and two civil officers on duty have thus died owing to health conditions. Postmortems are currently underway for these incidents.
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