East PC polls, most corrupt in history - UNP

Polls for the Eastern Provincial Council will go down in the country's election history as the most corrupt of its kind, the United National Party has said.

Irrespective of the outcome, the UNP will go to courts against the election, the party's General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said in a statement.

All three districts to the election experienced massive vote rigging and intimidation of voters, but the law enforcement authorities failed to take any preventive action, he said.


The Pillayan-led TMVP, as well as several government ministers and their gangs were responsible for unleashing the terror and the malpractices.

Ministers Risath Bathiudeen and K.A. Baiz had terrorized Trincomalee, while the Pillayan Group and other government gangs stuffed ballot boxes and expelled voters from polling centre, Mr. Attanayake alleged.

UNP MPs Ravi Karunanayake, Gayantha Karunatilake and Sarathchandra Rajakaruna had their vehicles attacked by armed groups, he said.

In Dehiattakandiya, the son of speaker of parliament, Ujith Lokubandara was threatened at gunpoint by the governor of the Sabaragamuwa Province.

The UNP General Secretary said further that a former police chief was responsible for the violence in Batticaloa, and that the ex-IGP had spent the previous night at a camp belonging to Pillayan.


The UNP's polling agents had been driven out from 45 polling centres in Batticaloa, 28 in Ampara and eight in Trincomalee, he added.