Opposition going to courts over presidential election results

By Rathindra Kuruwita

“If the commissioner is so sure about the results he should release the carbon copies given to him by the officers in charge of the 880 counting centres around the country. We can compare these with the issued results and see what has happened. We are preparing to go to courts to challenge the results -- we have only 21 days to do so from the day the results are declared, ” says UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera on the ongoing spat about the presidential election results.
Meanwhile, JVP MP Vijitha Herath claimed that they also refuse to accept the final result and claimed that they will file a case in the Supreme Court in the coming week. He added that the behaviour of the government after the election has raised many suspicions.
“There are a lot of details that raises suspicion, for example why was the local media kept away and why did the government try to expel Karin Wenger of Swiss Public Radio who at a press conference questioned Susil Premajayantha as to where Basil Rajapaksa was. Also the government did its best to prevent foreign media from covering the elections and now they are doing their best to prevent us from procuring the necessary documents, like carbon copies of election results from the 880 counting officers.”
Meanwhile, Rohana Hettiarachchi, Executive Director of Peoples’ Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFERAL) said that there has been no evidence of mass scale rigging that could have changed the outcome of the result.
“There have been reports of chasing away opposition representatives from counting centres but I don’t think that would have had a major impact on the outcome. But if the opposition political parties think it’s a computer scam the best way to sort it out is to tally the carbon copies sent by the 880 counting offices with the results that were announced. And if their was a difference they have a good chance of revoking the election result.”
Rumours were doing the rounds the entire week that the presidential election results had been manipulated using computers, and the opposition vehemently opposed the final results of the recent presidential poll but failed to prove the allegation. The government said that the opposition could not accept defeat and had therefore come out with various allegations to dispute the victory.

Squashed rumours

Elections Commissioner, Dayananda Dissanayake on February 3 once and for all squashed rumours that the presidential election was rigged saying that he stood by the voting process and the results.
However, the common opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka and opposition political parties including the UNP and the JVP refused to accept the commissioner’s statement saying that they will take legal action to revoke the results in the coming weeks.
UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara added that the voting cards found dumped in Ratnapura and Gampaha, the various incidents of recorded malpractices in many counting centres --- as well as allegations of changing the results by a sophisticated computer mechanism, has made it impossible for them to accept the results.

Accept

“General Fonseka said he could not accept the final verdict and that there has been a sophisticated computer manipulation; I think that almost anyone will agree that such a huge margin of 1.8 million is impossible.
On many occasions, opposition representatives were chased away from counting centres but most Counting Officers have not recorded these incidents because of intimidation. The commissioner has not taken any action on these incidents,” he said.