Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said that although putting up posters, banners and cutouts of candidates has been considerably low this election, it has cost the authorities Rs. 60 million to date to remove them.
Speaking to the media this morning, Gunasekara said the police has received a total of 222 complaints regarding the election, out of which 115 are related to election violations.
He added that a total of 90 suspects have been arrested regarding such violations.
The police spokesman further said that a total of 25,712 police officers were deployed to 12,859 polling centres around the country today, with 6,086 police officers and civil defence force personnel each have been deployed to 3,743 patrols covering the entire island.
A total of 2,193 police officers along with the STF will be deployed for the security of the 43 counting centres, he added.
Gathering of individuals, pressurising or influencing people and pleading for votes is prohibited within a radius of 500m from the polling centres, said Gunasekara, adding that transporting individuals to and from polling centres is also prohibited except for transporting arrangements made for disabled people.
The spokesman also urged the public to avoid bringing mobile phones to polling centres if possible as it is a punishable offence to take pictures of the ballot papers or any other item within the centres. If a mobile phone rang inside the premises of a polling centre, its owner would be immediately arrested for disrupting the duty of the polling officers, he warned.
(Republic Next)