By 4 October, the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) had recorded 1,162 violent incidents including 24 murders and five attempted murders. In more than 53% of the incidents the perpetrator was the ruling People’s Alliance. CMEV also says that the situation in Jaffna is not conducive for elections. Over 250,000 people have been displaced and government ally EPDP, which has been allowed to carry arms, is involved in a campaign of intimidation in the peninsula. A survey by the Centre for Policy Alternatives indicates that only 23% of the people believe that the elections will be free and fair.
The violence was particularly bad in the hill capital Kandy, where Deputy Defence minister Anuruddha Ratwatte’s son Chanuka Ratwatte is accused of involvement in intimidation of opposition members and candidates. He was arrested in late September for shooting at the vehicle of an opposition UNP candidate, injuring a person.
JVP member AD Sirideva was shot dead in Matale on 27 September. Six houses belonging to UNP supporters at Polgodawatte near Negombo were burned on 29 September. A boy was killed in a bomb attack on vehicles carrying election campaigners, including deputy minister MLAM Hisbullah, on 2 October in Batticaloa town.
The decision of the Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake to introduce stickers on polling cards to prevent fraud has been attacked by government ministers. Colombo newspaper Sunday Leader reports of ‘a threatening presence outside the Commissioner’s residence’. The Commissioner discovered forged polling cards and in order to maintain secrecy contracted a private printer to print the stickers. An election candidate of the ruling PA has petitioned the Human Rights Commission alleging that the Commissioner’s actions violate his fundamental rights.