The Police Department has stated that it will have to consider providing security to the Government Printing Department only when the ballot paper printing process commences, and that officers would have to be reassigned from various police stations and duties as they would have to be deployed at the Printing Department for a longer period than usual.
Responding to Government Printer Gangani Liyanage’s statement last week that the “main reason” for the delay in the printing of the ballot papers for the postal voting at the Local Government (LG) poll is that despite many requests made to the Police Department, including to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne by both the Election Commission (EC) and the Government Printing Department, requesting security for the ballot printing process, Police personnel are yet to be deployed for the same.
When contacted yesterday, Police Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police Attorney Nihal Thalduwa referred The Daily Morning to a statement he provided on Friday (17), stating that there has been no change in the position since then.
Addressing a media briefing on Friday (17), SSP Thalduwa noted: “When providing security, we need to consider that police officers would have to be stationed there for a long period of time. We need to find police officers for this purpose. We will have to call police officers who are carrying out their duties in other places as we do not have officials in excess. We use officers who are on duty. This is not for a day or for a few hours. It is for a long period.”
He further noted that the 65 officers requested by the Government Printing Department is comparatively more than those deployed at a police station.
“The requirement of 65 officers is more than the total at certain police stations. Therefore, we will have to call them from different places and deploy them under special duty. Although the numbers of police officers have been requested from institutions, the police department would decide the number of police officers to be deployed. When a requirement arises we would deploy them and also their task is huge.”
He further stated: “Although elections take place, other duties are carried out as it is. It does not change. The Police will also have to face inconvenience in that case. However, if security is needed for election activities we would ensure we provide maximum security. We would function according to the advice of the Chairman of the EC. We would provide security whenever needed.”
SSP Thalduwa also noted that although there had been a request from the Government Printer, the printing work of ballot papers had not commenced yet due to the lack of funds.
“But at this moment there had been a request from the Government Printer for security. Until now due to lack of funds, ballot paper printing had not commenced. Therefore, after printing begins, we will take necessary steps to provide security.”
However, speaking to The Daily Morning, Liyanage said on Thursday (16): “Initially, the EC wrote to the Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) of the Western Province (Deshabandu Tennakoon) to provide security, but it was not provided. Since there was no response, I spoke directly to the DIG – Elections, and he requested I write to the IGP directly and copy it to Tennakoon. I sent a letter and telephoned them, requesting that security be sent. By that time, we needed Police security. But, they didn’t respond. So, I then informed the EC. It is the EC that should request Police security for us. They wrote a letter today (16) as well, requesting security.
“On previous occasions, when the EC wrote to the Police to provide security, they did provide security. If one ballot paper goes missing, it would be a problem. If we are moving ballot papers from section to section, even then, we need Police security as we don’t just drag them to the other section. We don’t have Police security for that. I promised to give the ballot papers for postal voting by 14 February, and to then commence printing for the election. Since we did not have required security, I put our security and printed the ballot papers for the postal voting in the confidential section. But eventually, the people who work with us were of the view that it is best to not proceed with printing the ballot papers without Police security.”
Meanwhile, the Government Printer had informed the EC in writing that the printing of ballot papers for the upcoming LG election cannot proceed sans the funds being released. Therefore, the distribution of ballot papers for postal voting scheduled to be held on Wednesday (15) was postponed indefinitely.