UNP Assistant Leader and Parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake lashed out at Finance Secretary P.B.Jayasundara, a public servant, for blatantly violating election laws by appearing for a two hour long television interview conducted by SLBC Chairman Hudson Samaraweera on Rupavahini.

Karunanayake made this remark at a press conference which was held at the Opposition Leader’s Office in Colombo.

During the programmer, the SLBC Chairman repeatedly criticized the election manifesto of the Common Opposition which was launched yesterday. The SLBC Chairman was posing questions to the Treasury Secretary while directly referring to the content of the election manifesto of the opposition. By doing so, the UNP said, the SLBC Chairman got the Treasury Secretary to counter the election manifesto of the Common Opposition.

Although Asian Mirror attempted to contact Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya over the conduct of Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundara  our attempts did not bear fruit.

Last week, Seven election-monitoring bodies called on all candidates and the public to work for a violence-free election amid scattered reports throughout this week of threats, assaults and attacks with explosives. As well, public resources watchdog Programme for Protection of Public Resources (PPPR) wrote to the Election Commissioner to punish public officials who openly engage in election propaganda activities.

The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), Campaign for Free and Elections (CaFFE), Movement for Free and Fair Elections (MFFE), Mothers and Daughters of Lanka (MDL), and National Polls Observation Centre (NPOC) expressed serious concerns about restricted opportunity for a free and fair electoral process