The UNP has complained to the Elections Commissioner, that UPFA candidates contesting the Central and North Western Provincial Council Polls, were violating election laws by displaying in public, pictures of themselves along with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

A UNP spokesman said that according to the law, the President cannot campaign for any political party and exhibiting his pictures along with UPFA candidates was illegal.

Citing an example, he said that huge cutouts, banners and posters depicting UPFA candidates with the President and army personnel, are being displayed on SLTB buses, bus stands and also opposite the Matale Police. "We have requested the Elections Commissioner to stop such unlawful activities."

On the night of January 30, a senior DIG along with a group of policemen allegedly from the Presidential Security Division, forcibly took control of a guest house belonging to UNP Central Provincial Council candidate Jayalath Bandara Dissanayake, resulting in his business activities being affected, the spokesman said.

The Matale UPFA Candidate Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon has opened unauthorized propaganda offices within the Matale District,he alleged. "Armed persons in two suspicious vehicles bearing registration numbers WPKE 0826 and KH 7263 have been roaming around Matale town during the last one week. On January 29, Ranjith Aluvihare MP, was followed by two double cabs without registration number plates, while returning from Galewela. Mr. Aluvihare has already complained to both the police and Elections Commissioner."

The spokesman said that a film defamatory of the UNP's Central Province Chief Ministerial candidate S. B. Dissanayake, was shown on January 28, at Wattegama Town and in Kandy. The police had been requested to prevent a recurrence of such crude activity, he said.

"On January 24, the wife of the UNP Puttalam District Group leader Mr. Ayubkhan and three others namely Mohamed Fazlam, Mohamed Arfan and Niranjala Madhubashini were attacked by some UPFA thugs and admitted with injuries to the Chilaw Hospital. Police acting on our complaint found a blue colour car bearing No: GA2244 I in front of the Bishops Palace in Chilaw. When the driver of the car was being questioned by Police, UPFA candidate Sanath Nishantha came with a gang, pushed aside the policemen who was conducting investigations and took the driver and car away by force."