EU observers have given a thumbs up to the recent parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, saying the polls were well administered but noted that campaign expenditure was exorbitant with some candidates spending over 5 lakh dollars.

 

The European Union deployed an Election Observation Mission to monitor the parliamentary elections on the invitation of the Commissioner of Elections of Sri Lanka.

 

The polling and counting procedures were assessed overwhelmingly positively by EU observers.

 

They said the August 17 parliamentary election was well administered and offered voters a genuine choice from among a broad range of political alternatives.

 

However, the interlocutors said the campaign was very costly with some candidates spending above 500,000 Euro (USD 551,876).

 

As Party and campaign finance are not regulated, there are no requirements regarding campaign spending limits or disclosure of donations and expenditures.

 

Despite overly restrictive rules which curbed freedom of campaigning not allowing candidates to engage in door-to-door campaigning, to canvass in person or distribute leaflets or posters, candidates and party activists campaigned vigorously, focusing on small meetings with voters.

 

Although the campaign was assessed by stakeholders as largely peaceful, incidents involving firearms resulted in several deaths, and there were numerous cases of assault and arson.

 

The major incidents, however, appeared to be isolated and did not lead to an escalation of violence.

 

There were also isolated reports of limitations to campaign freedom in the Tamil-dominated Northern province.

 

Despite the lack of legal provisions regarding domestic observation, civil society organisations carried out large-scale monitoring of misuse of public resources, campaign violations, voter education programmes and polling and counting observation and deployed some 20,000 observers on Election Day.

 

The mission is headed by Cristian Preda, Member of the European Parliament (Romania), and comprises 85 observers from 28 EU-member states, as well as from Switzerland and Norway, including a delegation of 6 members of European Parliament.

 

Incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) coalition won 106 seats in the election, just 7 short of a simple majority in the 225-member assembly but enough to form a government.

(PTI)