New Parliament should change electoral law to rectify key areas: PAFFREL

New Parliament should be the one that would change electoral law in order to rectify some of the areas which were seen as a problematic, People's Action for Free and Fair Election ( PAFFREL) said yesterday.

PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi told a press conference that laws should be brought to control the colossal funds that were spent for the campaigns by the candidates, to control social media and to bring in advance voting.

Mr. Hettiarachchi said there was no level playing field in this year's election as candidates were unable to conduct their traditional campaigning due to health restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Only those candidates who are wealthy enough could afford the campaigning this time because of health restrictions. Therefore we suggest that laws should be brought in to limit the money spent for campaigning" Mr. Hettiarachchi said.

"Controlling of social media is essential, as there were around 4,000 complaints on candidates during the silent period. Advance voting is necessary as around 1,500 persons who were in quarantine centres were unable to vote despite efforts put in by the election commission to provide facilities." he added.

He said the election day yesterday was peaceful despite a very few incidents. “There was a complaint about an assault in Mahiyangana, 15 cases of minor rigging of votes, one incident of threatening using a fire arm in Kundasale in Kandy, 510 cases of campaigning over social media and 33 cases of wooing voters during the voting period,” he said.