The Elections Commission will meet in the future to take relevant decisions and a special unit has already been set up at the Elections Secretariat to take immediate action regarding election violence, he said.The Elections Commission has decided to open complaint offices to investigate election complaints at the Elections Secretariat in Rajagiriya and all the District Offices to receive complaints relating to the election.
The complaint offices will be established in collaboration with the police and after investigating the complaints received during the presidential elections this year, new laws will be brought to prevent issues that are seen as routinely happening during elections, according to the official.He further said that although complaints were accepted during previous elections as well, there were no follow-up actions. However, this time the Commission has already made arrangements to take follow-up actions on the complaints made during the upcoming Presidential election.
The official said if a person is found liable to punishment by the Elections Act for violating election laws, his or her civic rights including voting rights could be suspended.He further said that steps are being taken to assist the Assistant and Additional Elections Commissioners to obtain the 'Peace Officer' powers enabling them to report the violators of election laws to the court and to enforce law against them.