• EC Chair says Comm. will take up any complaints lodged about expenditure
• Public can lodge complaints with EC, DS and Police about expenditure

The campaign expenditure reports of Presidential candidates, submitted within the specified period, are to be displayed at Election Commission (EC) and District Secretariats (DS) while reports not submitted on time will be referred to the Police for further action, it is learnt.

Under the Regulation of Election Expenditure Act, No. 3 of 2023, all Presidential candidates were supposed to submit reports detailing their campaign expenditures, including the sources of funds, to the Commission by midnight on 13 October.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, EC Chairperson, R.M.A.L. Rathnayake said that the reports received by the EC on time would be displayed at EC and DS premises in the coming days. "We should publish a paper advertisement mentioning the places where the public will be able to view these reports. It should be done 10 days after the deadline for submissions. The public can view all the reports and if there is any issue, they can lodge complaints with the EC, the DS, or the Police. If there will be any complaint to us, we will forward them to the Police."

When queried about candidates who didn't submit their reports by the deadline, he said that their submissions would be referred for the Police to initiate the necessary legal action as per the Attorney General's (AG) instructions. Accordingly, the Police will be initiating legal action against Presidential candidates, Ven. Battaramulle Seelarathana Thera, Sarath Keethirathna and Pakkiyaselvam Ariyanethiran.

Seelarathana Thera told The Daily Morning on 15 October that he had sent the reports to the EC via post, but the delivery had been delayed. Similarly, Keerthirathna said that he posted his reports on 12 October, but they had not arrived by the deadline. Ariyanethiran also said that he had submitted his expenditure reports to the EC on 14 October. As per the EC, all other Presidential candidates including President-elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People's Power, Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, Independent candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe, Namal Rajapaksa of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, and Dilith Jayaweera of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka had submitted the relevant reports within the relevant time period.