Jagdeo election team notes concerns of abuse of state resources

The Colombo Gazette has just reported that Bharrat Jagdeo as head of the Commonwealth Observer team for the Jan 8 Sri Lankan election has noted concerns over the abuse of state resources.

“Issues raised by those we met so far included on the abuse of State resources, violence and concerns on the potential role of the military,” he said.  There have also been several reports of voter intimidation ahead of the polls. (France 24)

The Colombo Page reports that “Sri Lanka’s Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya had asked the state media not to broadcast programs unfairly supporting the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is contesting for a third term at the upcoming presidential elections. Deshapriya said that his department has received numerous complaints from independent monitors that the state media is openly favoring the President in violation of election laws. The Election Commissioned in a letter to the state electronic media has said that the state media carrying out propaganda to promote ruling party candidates in the January 8 presidential polls is a hindrance to conduct a free and fair poll. Deshapriya has asked the state run TV Rupavahini to adhere to the guidelines issued by the Election Commission on the conduct of media during campaigning. “I have been informed by civil society groups, election monitoring groups and candidates that your station has been carrying out propaganda to promote candidates. This badly impedes the process of holding a free and fair election,” the Election Commissioner wrote in the letter. He also asked the state media to get permission from him when sensitive political news are to be aired. Pointing out that state media favoring the government candidate is a violation of election laws and the EC has warned that the state media outlets will be held responsible for violations. Local election monitors have also complained to the Election Commissioner that a number of state vehicles and state officials are being used for President’s election campaign….”

Sounds familiar? A  Commonwealth team observing the run up to the 2011 election in Guyana when Jagdeo was still president also reported on the dame abuse concluding that “as a consequence of the media bias and the resources at the disposal of the incumbent there was not a sufficiently level playing field for the campaign”

This included Jagdeo’s announcement of an unusually early salary increase for public servants, and the handing out of $20K cash to Lethem residents from the PPP/C headquarters. And on election day Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett promised mills and sewing machines to women in St Ignatius. Here are the source documents on that report.