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Election monitors PAFFREL say that the proliferation of illegal election offices has become one of the main reasons for the polls violence.
PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi yesterday said the majority of party offices erected at every junction and on roadsides were illegal as they were not registered according to the regulations prescribed by the Elections Commissioner.
Each such office had to be registered at the Election Secretariat in Colombo through an assistant election commissioner and the police station in the area it belongs to by the General Secretary of the respective political party. "Otherwise they are illegal offices and police must act in accordance with the law and remove them," he said.
"The party offices had been opened haphazardly with candidates from one Political Party or Independent Group opening Offices next to each other leading to supporters their supporters clashing," he said.
Hettiarachchi said that there are 7,620 candidates belonging to 36 political parties and 301 Independent groups in the fray and they are all legally entitled to open party offices within the districts from which they contest. "But these offices have to meet the conditions stipulated by the Commissioner of Elections," he said.
