Court issues notice on Pillayan and Polls Chief

By S.S.Selvanayagam

The Court of Appeal yesterday issued notices on Eastern Province Chief Minister, the Elections Commissioner and others when the SLMC candidates who contested on the UNP ticket filed a petition against the elections in the Batticaloa district.

Notice returnable on July 14 was issued by Appeal Court Judge Rajith de Silva on EP Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan who contested from the Batticaloa district, Council members A.S. Javahir Salih and A.L.M.Hisbullah, Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake, Batticaloa Returning Officer S. Arumainayagam, Disaster Relief Services Minister Ameer Ali and the OICs of the Kattankudy and Valaichchenai police stations and 11 others.

In the petition SLMC candidates A.L.M.Marsook, M.H.S.Ismail and L.T.M.Furkan are seeking an order from court that the May 10 election was void. They said Tamil MakkalViduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) under the leadership of Mr. Chandrakanthan had contested the election as an ally of the UPFA while the TMVP had camps all over the Batticaloa district with its armed cadres manning them.

The petitioners alleged Mr. Hisbullah who contested on the UPFA ticket was provided with a large number of security personnel by the state. These security personnel included Army and STF cadres.

They appealed that election be declared void on the grounds of general intimidation, misconduct, non-compliance with the provisions of the Provincial Councils Elections Act and other reasons.

The petitioners alleged that senior presiding officers of the Batticaloa district polling booths unlawfully refused to record the complaints of illegal activities that took place in the booths.They also said Mr. Hisbullah had publicly declared and campaigned all over the district among the Muslim voters informing them that he would be appointed as the Chief Minister if more Muslim members were elected through the nomination list of the UPFA.

They said Mr. Hisbulla called upon Muslim voters to cast their votes only for the UPFA symbol and their preferences only for him and other Muslim candidates of the UPFA to ensure he would be the Chief Minister.

The petitioners charged that Mr. Hisbullah by his false election propaganda and campaign, had created an image as the Chief Ministerial candidate in the minds of innocent Muslim voters and that by misguided and misleading election campaign, he deceived and cheated the Muslim voters.

They contended that soon after the elections results, the Muslim voters were made to realize that Mr. Hisbullah’s election campaign and propaganda were made with an intention to unduly influence the Muslim voters and to prevent them voting for the recognized political party or independent group which they preferred. This significantly affected the results of the election.

Earlier the opposition UNP-SLMC alliance also challenged the election results in the Ampara district of the Eastern province.