Nearly Rs. 378 million has been spent for the president's propaganda

The Programme for Protection of Public Resources (PPPR) of Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) says that both main candidates have so far failed to reveal the source of huge money spent for propaganda campaigns.

“The huge sums of money spent on the political party campaigning raises concern about their sources both in terms of possible use of public money and as a matter of transparency in the interest of the public,” the PPPR said in a statement.

Nearly Rs. 80 million has been spent on behalf of main opposition candidate, Gen (retd) Sarath Fonseka, it said.

State media

For President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s campaign, according to the PPPR, apprx. Rs. 378 million has been spent raising questions as to who funded these propaganda campaigns.

“This is merely the costs of publishing, broadcasting or telecasting the advertisements in print and electronic media (excluding the cost of production), based on the disclosed rates per rate cards,” it said.

	The opposition has spent over Rs. 80 million for election propaganda

The PPPR in its fourth report on Tuesday’s elections has accused the government of misusing public resources including state media.

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court earlier ordered state and private media to comply with the election commissioner’s guidelines in the run up to the elections.

But the elections commissioner had to withdraw the competent authority he appointed to oversee the conduct of the state media as they did not respect Commissioner's guidelines.

The Chief incumbent of the Malwatte Chapter in Sri Lanka, meanwhile, has warned President Mahinda Rajapaksa that the non compliance of Supreme Court orders might lead to the deterioration of law and order in Sri Lanka.

The Most Venerable Thibbotuwawe Sri Sumangala thera of the Malwatte chapter in a letter has drawn president's special attention to state media which continued to act disregarding Supreme Court orders.

It is very rarely that chief Buddhist prelates come out with such warnings to the head of state.