At least 500 individuals, including dozens of candidates in Sri Lanka’s upcoming local elections, have been arrested for violating election laws, according to a Sri Lankan police spokesperson.
Sri Lanka’s Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said the total number of people arrested dates from December 9th, until this week with a total of at least 183 cases related to election law violations and 610 cases related to election complaints having been reported.
At least 52 of those cases have been reported with regards to assaults and threats, he added, noting that 61 candidates had been arrested so far.
See more from the Daily Mirror here.
His comments come after news that K. Kiritharan, a TNPF candidate in Vadamarachchi was assaulted on Wednesday night, and with Tamil first year students studying at southern universities reporting harassment from Sinhalese seniors who are preventing them from going home to vote.