307 Incidents Of Violence Up To April 2

58,700 policemen are to be deployed countrywide to maintain law and order during the general election, according to Police Spokesman Prashantha Jayakody. 19,500 military personnel will be coordinating with police as well, IGP Mahinda Balasuriya revealed in a press conference on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 7620 candidates will be contesting this general election compared to 5698 in 2004, according to Additional Commissioner W. P Sumanasiri. Of these, 301 will be independent candidates.

36 parties have registered, which is also an increase from the 2004 general election figures. An estimated 11,098 polling booths will be set up around the country.

In the recent postal vote, 61,691 were rejected, 22,851 because of delays in sending the application form. An estimated 45957 IDPs have registered to vote. The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) reported 307 election violations as of April 2 on its website. “This is an election where the violation of election law is on the increase,” Director Keerthi Tennekone said.