People’s Action for a Free and Fair Election or Paffaral Organization states that the membership of the candidate who won the Maduruketiya Division in Monaragala District in the last local government election has been revoked by the Monaragala High Court, but the Election Commission has not taken any action regarding that.
The Paffaral organization also says that the court has ruled that the candidate who got the second highest number of votes for that division is the legally elected member.
The organization also claims that the candidate who received the most votes in that division had bribed the voters during the election campaign, so his membership was revoked.
According to the Local Government Elections Ordinance, giving bribes to voters is serious electoral corruption.
The organization says that this decision will go down in history as a very important court decision regarding the giving of election bribes.
It has been nearly a year since the Monaragala High Court gave its verdict and two months have passed since the appeal filed by the first respondent was rejected, but the Election Commission has not acted to fill the vacant position until now, the Paffrel organization alleges.
