No media briefing this time, says Elections Commissioner

There will be no media briefings held following the general elections on April 8, said Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake during a meeting with media representatives at his office this morning.

The Commissioner was meeting the media to discuss and make them aware of the systems that would be followed to disseminate the results of the April 8 general elections.

Mr. Dissanayake said that often the media had a tendency to misquote his statements and that he had no time to keep on correcting these erroneous reports. He added that the decision not to hold media conferences was taken to minimize this problem.

The Elections Commissioner said that the Proportionate Representation (PR) system was the main cause for the existing intra-party rivalry and the clash among the candidates. This system has to be changed but no politician would like to change it as they would prefer to take maximum advantage of this system.

Commenting on the removal of election propaganda material, Mr. Dissanayake said that it was not fair to blame him for the lapse in removing them. It is the duty of the police to see that the cutouts, banners, poster etc are removed. But most police personnel are helpless against the politicians and cannot carry out these duties to the fullest, he added.

On accusations of polls results being manipulated by computers and similar allegations, the Commissioner said that most of these are being levelled by those in the urban and metropolitan areas. This amounts to around 20 per cent of the total number of voters. The majority are those from the villages or outstations. They have not made such accusations, Mr. Dissanayake said.