Aug 20, Colombo: Elections violence monitoring organizations in Sri Lanka say elections related violence is rising ahead of the provincial polls scheduled to be held on Saturday, August 23.

The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) Deputy Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi told a news conference that 128 complaints had been received from the two provinces so far, compared to 156 complaints received from 6 provinces during the previous provincial council elections in 2004.

Another poll monitoring organization, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) reported 151 election related violence incidents including 53 cases of misuse of state property from July 1 to today.

The police have decided to deploy 21,000 policemen to provide security during the elections to curb violence, Police spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunasekara has told BBC Sandeshaya program.

Monitoring organizations and opposition parties accuse the ruling party supporters of eliciting violence ahead of the polls to intimidate the opponents. They accuse the Police of turning a blind eye to the government supporters.

The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna yesterday accused the government of vote rigging saying that the government is now foreseeing the defeat at the upcoming polls and bracing to set-up violence against opponents and engage in vote rigging.

JVP accused the government of abusing state resources and using public funds to deprive people of their democratic rights.