Polls chief wants Supreme Court to scrap Fonseka’s petition

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 23:36 GMT]
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has made an appeal to the Supreme Court to immediately dismiss the petition submitted by Sri Lanka's defeated opposition Presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka who has challenged the presidency of incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa, State owned Dinamina newspaper said in a report Wednesday. Fonseka is currently under military custody.

Citing reasons for his request, the Elections Commissioner noted that Fonseka has failed to submit any acceptable arguments or evidence in the petition he submitted to the Supreme Court which challenged Rajapaksa’s re-election in January this year.

The petition is expected to be taken up mid September by a five member bench at the Supreme Court.

In February this year, Fonseka petitioned the Supreme Court challenging Mahinda Rajapakse's re-election.

Fonseka who lost a January 26 vote, alleged that he was robbed of victory because of rigging, electoral malpractice and undue influence on the 14 million electorates.

"We are presenting a 40-page complaint to the Supreme Court on bribery, corruption, the use of undue influence and vote rigging at the election," Fonseka’s lawyer Wijedasa Rajapakshe said.

Fonseka received 40.15 percent of the popular vote compared to 57.88 for Rajapakse at an election many had expected would be a close fight.