Sri Lanka's Election Commissioner Rejects Fraud Allegations
- 14 years ago
Sri Lanka's election commissioner rejected opposition allegations of counting fraud after last week's presidential election.
[Dayananda Dissanayake, Election Commissioner]:
"Campaign period is of course I am not satisfied. Voting and the results I stand by.”
Losing candidate General Sarath Fonseka and his supporters have alleged that President Mahinda Rajapaksa stole the January 26th election. Rajapaksa won with a landslide 18 percent margin, equal to 1.8 million votes.
Fonseka’s camp has alleged the fraud was primarily committed through manipulation of computer tallies of the ballots.
The opposition vowed street protests over the election, and the first was due to start on Wednesday.
[Dayananda Dissanayake, Election Commissioner]:
"Anyone who are not satisfied, who have grievances, the only avenue left is to go to courts, go to the Supreme Court and file a election petition."
The opposition said on late Tuesday it had found a few bundles of ballot papers marked for Fonseka, some of which were burnt.
The election commissioner says he’ll investigate after Fonseka meets him on Wednesday.
[Dayananda Dissanayake, Election Commissioner]:
"Campaign period is of course I am not satisfied. Voting and the results I stand by.”
Losing candidate General Sarath Fonseka and his supporters have alleged that President Mahinda Rajapaksa stole the January 26th election. Rajapaksa won with a landslide 18 percent margin, equal to 1.8 million votes.
Fonseka’s camp has alleged the fraud was primarily committed through manipulation of computer tallies of the ballots.
The opposition vowed street protests over the election, and the first was due to start on Wednesday.
[Dayananda Dissanayake, Election Commissioner]:
"Anyone who are not satisfied, who have grievances, the only avenue left is to go to courts, go to the Supreme Court and file a election petition."
The opposition said on late Tuesday it had found a few bundles of ballot papers marked for Fonseka, some of which were burnt.
The election commissioner says he’ll investigate after Fonseka meets him on Wednesday.