The Election Commission recently noted that it has received a large number of complaints about election propaganda carried out at religious places of worship in connection with the General Election 2020 from the Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Hambantota and Ampara districts.
Thus, the Election Commission kindly requests “all venerable and reverend sirs not to allow places of worship being used for the purpose of promoting/demoting any political party/ independent group/ candidate and also to abstain from carrying out any activity that promotes/demotes political party/ independent group/ candidate during the election period.
Further, the EC noted that in terms of Section 79 of the Parliamentary Election Act, No. 1 of 1981, anyone who carries out propaganda activities at a place of worship or utters at any religious assembly any words for the purpose of promoting/demoting political party/ independent group/ candidate shall be guilty of the offence of undue influence.
The EC also requested all authorized agents, group leaders, candidates and political activists to abstain from using places of worship to carry out propaganda activities. If any such activities are carried out, the EC requested the general public to bring such incidents to the notice of the nearest police station, District Election Complaint Management Unit or the National Election Complaint Management Center at the EC.
from daily news