The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) says that as of today it has received a combined total of 288 complaints pertaining to the upcoming election for the Western and Southern Provincial Councils and that 14 of them are concerning incidents of election violence.

Ninety-five per cent of the complaints (274) are with regard to violations of election laws while 117 of them involve the misuse of public property, using state employees for electioneering, appointment and transfers during election period, it said.

The election watchdog further said that it has received 137 complaints regarding illegal election propaganda, which makes out for 48 per cent of the total complaints. 

Of the complaints regarding election violence, 11 are incidents of assault and threatening while 3 of them are regarding the damaging property and Illegal election propaganda.

A highest number of complaints have been received from the Western Province (181) while a total of 96 complaints have been received from the Southern Province.

Of the six electoral districts, the Colombo District has recorded the most number of complaints with 90 in total, according to CaFFE.

However, the most number of incidents of election violence have taken place in the Hambantota District.

Meanwhile the Police said that over 30 persons and 9 vehicles have been taken into custody over election law violations.

The charges against them include unlawful gathering, pasting of posters and painting party symbols/preference numbers on the road.