Election Commission urges the public to stop conducting opinion polls
The Election Commission has urged the public to refrain from releasing the conclusions of opinion polls conducted at institutions and classes on to the internet in a manner that disrupts the free and fair conduct of the Presidential Election.
In a special statement the Chairman of the Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya said such actions are punishable offences according to the electoral law.
The Elections Chief claimed such actions violated the certain clauses such as Article 78 of the Presidential Election Act.
Deshapriya noted that such actions dampen the conduct of a fair Election.
The Chairman stressed equating the results of opinion polls obtained by employees of a company or a group of students to the overall results of the country was a crime.
He added an election was conducted island wide across on one given day and the results were released on one day in order to prevent the results of one area from manipulating the votes of another.
Deshapriya stated for an example the counting of postal votes only commenced once voting concludes claiming if not the results of the postal votes could impact other voters.
Therefore, the Elections Chief requested all law abiding citizens to refrain from conducting such opinion polls.
(Source: News Radio)
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Mate Deshapriya,
Stop being a broken record and go take a shave, bothe on your face and below, and become a man.
opinion Polls are an essential elemenet of democracy; if your rulebook does not permit opinion polls, go set fire to that book, Mate.
Wow! Is this a joke or what – asking the public to stop doing opinion polls? What this (evident) frog-in-the-well does not appear to know is that opinion polls is very much a hallmark of all democratic election processes, particularly a feature in ‘western democracies,” values of which the West constantly keeps preaching to us align-with. However in this case I am confident the West is not going to haul you to Geneva to answer for violations of human rights as I am sure it too prefers to see none of these opinion polls about the current Presidential Elections in SL!
Mr Deshapriya,
Your so-called Independent Election Commission has accepted Presidential Nomination from a Citizen of the United States of America contrary to 19A.
Mr Deshapriya, please refer to The United States District Court for the Central District of California ruling on the case against Gothabhaya Rajapkasa by Ahimsa Wickrematunge.
On 22 Oct 2019, when the ruling was issued, the US Courts refers to Mr Gothabhaya Rajapaksa as a ‘Citizen of the USA’.
Mr Deshapruya, you are corrupt, corrupt to the core; you and your Commissioners including the learned Prof Hoole, do not know what you are doing.
Shut up and go away, IDIOT Commissioners of the EC..
Kota Katu,
I noticed that too.
The US Courts referred to Mr G Rajapaksa as a Citizen of the US. That was on 22 Oct 2019.
How come he is on the list of 35 Presidential Candidates?
I agree, the EC and its Commissioners do not know what they are doing.
They are clueless and perhaps, corrupt too.
Agree that this man is totally an un-savvy and inept man for the EC job. However you need to wake up and smell the coffee yourself because the case against Gotabaya by Ahimsa Wickrematunga was dismissed summarily recently and although the court may refer to him as whatever (due to records not being updated), legally he renunciated his US citizenship long before formally submitting his name for candidacy.
Kota Katu, Esmee and Simon,
The US Court which knocked Ahimsa’s case noted (on 22 Oct 2019) that Mr GR was a Citizen of the US.
Mr GR renounced his US citizenship some time ago; that does not mean he is not a citizen of the US.
Citizenship is a two-way process; the Citizen and the Agency which awards citizenship.
The Citizen may renounce the citizenship but the Agency which provides the Citizenship must approve the renunciation!
This is yet to happen; Mr GR’s renunciation is yet to be accepted by the US Govt; in the eyes of US Courts, Mr GR continues to be a citizen.
Our independent EC is a bunch of corrupt commissioners.