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The Politburo of the party will meet on Tuesday and decide their next step on results of the Eastern Province election.

“This is highly corrupted election and the government used its full of power to grab votes, he said. He charged that the government rigged the eastern provincial polls by chasing out opposition polling agents and forcibly entering polling booths to stuff ballot boxes.

He said that several incidents were reported where UNP polling agents were sent away forcibly.

According to the UNP, its polling agents were not allowed to be present in 85 polling booths in Batticaloa (35), Trincomalee (20) and Ampara (30).

He alleged that 81 instances were reported where UPFA supporters had forcibly entered polling booths in Batticaloa (45), Trincomalee (08) and Ampara (28).

He also highlighted instances where vehicles of UNP members were attacked during the polls yesterday.

“We cannot call this a free and fair election, especially when we take into consideration these types of incidents,” Attanayake said.

Meanwhile, the JVP also said the eastern election was not conducted in a free and fair manner adding that this was so from the time the polls were announced. However, the TMVP denied such reports by the opposition parties and said the election was held without any violence or violations.

Meanwhile, UNP Eastern Chief Ministerial Candidate Rauf Hakeem has accused the police of actively trying to “disenfranchise the Muslim community” at yesterday’s Eastern Provincial Council election.

In a letter he wrote yesterday to Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake, Hakeem accused several government ministers of bringing “large numbers of goons and hit men” into the east, who were “unleashing violence to create a fear psychosis amongst the Muslims” in areas with significant Muslim populations.

Despite Hakeem speaking to Eastern Range DIG Upali Gunasekera and UNP MP John Amaratunge bringing the matter to the attention of the IGP, he wrote that “the police did not do their job.” Senior officers were not contactable throughout the election, Hakeem wrote, adding further that police refused to record complaints from some UNP candidates against the violence perpetrated by ministers Rishard Bathiudeen, Welgama and K. A. Baiz.

“While people in Trincomalee were brave enough to fight violence unleashed by government and minimized rigging, in both Batticaloa and Ampara the government had a field day with TMVP and rigged votes especially in Tamil areas” he said.

“With evidence we are going to prove how the government along with Pillayan rigged this election” he added. Meanwhile Election Commissioner said the UPFA has secured majority of the EPC.

UPFA has won seven polling divisions out of 10 polling divisions of the province. The first chief minister of the EPC will assume duties under the UPFA banner.

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