Legal requirement for presidential candidates to declare campaign expenditure:

By Ranil Dharmasena and Rathindra Kuruwita

Not a single presidential candidate has handed over his expenses report for election propaganda to the Election Commission (EC) by 04 October 2024, according to sources.Presidential candidates have time till 12 October to hand over their election campaign expense reports to the EC.

According to campaign finance laws each presidential candidate must submit election campaign expense reports to the EC within 21 days of the announcement of the election results.

Once all 38 candidates have submitted their expense reports, the documents will be made available for public viewing.

Should any discrepancies be found in any candidate’s reports, individuals are entitled to file complaints with the police, provided they furnish credible evidence to support their claims.

Meanwhile, Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake said that he believed that candidates would hand over the reports next week. “Sri Lankans submit reports at the last minute,” he said.

Rohana Hettiarachchi, Executive Director of People’s Action for Free & Fair Elections (PAFFREL) told The Island that the expenses reports would show the number of dummy candidates who contested the 21 September election.

“Candidates for the Presidential Election will submit their expenditure reports next week. I believe that some candidates will present reports stating that they have not spent any money. These are the so-called ‘dummy candidates,” he said.

If the EC does not take steps to reduce these dummy candidates, the number of dummy candidates would increase further in the future, he said. There had been a proposal to increase the electoral deposits that candidates had to place when contesting elections, he said.