UNF to challenge presidential election results

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The United National Front will file a presidential election petition next week challenging the results of the recent poll.
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna is working on the petition and its Parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake confirmed that they will go to courts next week asking for legal redress.
He added that they have already collected substantial evidence to prove election malpractices that changed the outcome of the elections.
“Our lawyers are working on it round the clock. Some evidence like ballot papers that have been thrown away have been shown to the media and we have also collected other important information that we will reveal to courts,” he said. “We will go before the courts in the coming week.”
Meanwhile, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) is also planning to go to courts to get a court order defining the powers of the elections commissioner and what he can do if his directives are ignored by institutions. CaFFE spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon said that they have requested Elections Commissioner, Dayanada Dissanayaka to hand over copies of the directives he sent to various state institutions during the presidential elections.
“He said that he has sent over 100 directives and all of them were ignored. So we want him to give us copies of those letters so that we can present them in a court of law -- we can’t just go by his word. But so far he has not complied with our request,” Tennakoon said.
Political parties who backed the common opposition candidate general Sarath Fonseka has charged that Sri Lankans had been robbed of the proper result at the January 26 presidential election. General Fonseka has vowed to take action against the outcome. But election monitoring bodies claim that the opposition has only little time left to file the petition. “If people don’t believe in the election results, that is a major issue. And if the opposition parties do not accept the results they should go to courts and they should do so within 21 days of the election. So far almost 12 days have passed and they don’t have much time left,” said PAFFERAL executive director Rohana Hettiarachchi.