The blatant violation of laws by UPFA candidates, including the intimidation of the police, election officials, opposition party members and a low voter turn out, contributed to an exaggerated government victory in Saturday’s Western Provincial Council Election, the UNP said yesterday.

Lakshman Kirielle MP, addressing a news conference in Colombo, said that only 39.4% of the registered voters in the Western Province had cast their preference for the UPFA, while the other 60.6 % had voted against it or refrained from exercising their franchise, due to lack of interest, or because they were allegedly intimidated by UPFA goon squads.

"Nearly 40 per cent of the registered electors did not participate in the polls. So it does fully reflect the peoples will."

He said that Saturday’s election proves once again the importance of establishing the independent commissions as stipulated by the 17th Amendment to the Constitution." It is imperative that all independent bodies, including the Elections, Police and Public Service Commissions, are established without any further delay. This should be done before anymore polls are conducted."

The absence of independent commissions have resulted in public servants, including the Police and Election officials being forced to follow illegal government directives to the disadvantage of opposition candidates, Kirielle charged.

The government, while attacking the independent media for reporting the truth, he said, had abused the State media to promote UPFA candidates, while villyfying the opposition with false allegations.

Kirielle said that the government was holding elections on a staggered basis, to enable it to abuse all public resources." Any future polls should be conducted, only after all the Independent Commissions are established."