Election violence increases

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 March 2004, 14:56 GMT]
With a day left for the 13th parliamentary election, which is scheduled to be held on April 2nd, post incidents of polls violence reached 1256 Wednesday morning. Of them 983 complaints related to election offences and the balance pertained to Violation of Election Laws, Police Election Secretariat reported.

During the last 24 hours that ended Wednesday morning at 6 a.m. Police Election Secretariat received 67 complaints. Of them 48 were related to election violence and the balance violation of election laws. Eight complaints had been reported from the Batticaloa district, sources said.

The highest number of election violence has been reported from the Ampara electoral district nearing 90; Ratnapura district came second with 70 and Anuradhapura district third with 68, police said

Majority of complaints relate to death threats, the use of criminal force and the abuse in offensive language, police said.

The Inspector General of Police Mr.Indra de Silva meanwhile has directed all Deputy Inspector Generals of Police (DIG) to take stern step against persons who violate the firearms ordinance as the number of incidents related to threatening with firearms has increased in the country, police said.