Warnasinghe victim of intra-party friction – CaFFE

Campaign office and supporters attacked twice

Nishantha--July 26, 2015, 10:34 pm 

A group of thugs armed with firearms attacked the party office of Kalutara District UNF candidate Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe twice at Baduraliya in Agalawatte during the early hours yesterday, according to Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE).

CaFFE said yesterday’s attack was the worst election law violation during the last seven days as the attackers had used firearms to chase away the supporters of Warnasinghe.

According to eye witness accounts recorded by the CaFFE the assailants had arrived in a jeep and assaulted everyone in the party office before damaging placards and propaganda billboards. The victims had lodged a complaint with the Baduraliya police, the election monitors said. Several hours later, the attackers returned the place in the same jeep, set upon those who had gathered there and chased them away. Two persons, Ajith Priyantha and D. K. Jayathilake were injured.

Victims suspect that the thugs were set on them by a politician belonging to the same party in the same district, according to CaFFE.

There was a bitterly fought battle for the preferential votes in the district among the UNF candidates resulting in incidents such as yesterday’s one, the polls monitors said.

CaFFE has so far received 538 complaints and of them 23 are of election violence incidents. The highest number of election law violations (80) has been reported from the Colombo District while the lowest (three each) from the Polonnaruwa and Batticaloa Districts. Districts of Badulla and Hambantota have come second with 36 incidents each.

Of the incidents reported, the highest number (260) of election law violations was of illegal election propaganda. The second highest (240) was about misuse of public property, using state employees for electioneering, appointment and transfers during the election period. There have been 13 incidents of damaging property and election propaganda materials, nine incidents of assaults and threatening and one murder reported from Ratnapura District, according to CaFFE said.